(Vatican City) Pope Francis called on Saturday for “dialogue” in the face of the “temptation to withdraw into oneself” during his traditional Christmas message, during which he insisted on “forgotten” conflicts, especially in Syria and in Yemen.
Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Burma, Ethiopia, Sudan, Sahel… As usual, the Argentinian pontiff gave himself to a vast overview of the conflicts of the planet and of the economic and social consequences of the health crisis, for this second Christmas in times of COVID-19.
“In these times of pandemic”, “our ability to maintain social relations is strained, the tendency is increasing to withdraw into oneself, to go it alone”, including “at the international level”, declared the sovereign pontiff in front of the faithful gathered in the rain on St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
PHOTO FILIPPO MONTEFORTE, FRANCE-PRESS AGENCY
“We still see a lot of conflicts, crises and contradictions that seem never to end, and we hardly notice them anymore” as “we are used to them”, with the “risk of not hearing the cry of pain and despair of so many of our brothers and sisters, ”he regretted.
The 85-year-old pope has especially insisted on the “immense tragedies” and “forgotten” which are played out in Syria and Yemen, in the grip of conflicts which made “numerous victims and an incalculable number of refugees”.
“We hear the cry of children rising from Yemen where a terrible tragedy, forgotten by everyone, has been unfolding in silence for years, killing people every day,” he said.
François also called for “not to let the metastases of a gangrenous conflict spread” in Ukraine, where tensions between Kiev and Moscow raise fears of a military escalation.