Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Francis fears the festivities of Christmas will be a ‘charade’ this year as the ‘whole world is at war,’ rejecting the ‘path of peace,’ so that ‘Jesus Himself weeps.’

The Pope’s powerful announcement was made during Mass at Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican last week, and came after the terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people on November 13, as an increasingly complex war rages on in Syria and tensions build in Africa, where he arrived on Wednesday to visit Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic.

“Today Jesus weeps as well, because we have chosen the way of war, the way of hatred, the way of enmities,” the Holy Father said, following a recounting of Jesus crying as He approached Jerusalem. “We are close to Christmas: there will be lights, there will be parties, bright trees, even Nativity scenes—all decked out—while the world continues to wage war. The world has not understood the way of peace.”

On Sunday, the Pope will arrive in the Central African Republic, the first time he has visited an active war zone. Thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in a civil war that has gripped the country since 2012.

During Mass at Casa Santa Marta, the Pope also recounted the recent commemorations of the Second World War, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and his visit to Redipuglia—home to Italy’s largest war memorial—last year on the anniversary of the First World War.

“Useless slaughters,” he said, repeating the words of Pope Benedict XV. “Everywhere there is war today, there is hatred. What shall remain in the wake of this war, in the midst of which we are living now? What shall remain? Ruins, thousands of children without education, so many innocent victims—and lots of money in the pockets of arms dealers. Jesus once said you cannot serve two masters: either God or riches. War is the right choice for him who would serve wealth: ‘Let us build weapons, so that the economy will right itself somewhat, and let us go forward in pursuit of our interests.’

During his Sunday Angelus address, the Pope called for prayers for all those persecuted around the world because of their Faith. The Pope also sent a telegram expressing solidarity with the people of Mali following a terrorist attack last Friday that killed 21 people, and followed just a week after the attacks in Paris.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, said—following the Paris attacks and amid calls for action against ISIS in Syria—that while ‘indiscriminate violence’ is never justifiable, ‘specific use of weapons in a defensive mode is defensible.’

The UK Government is expected to hold a vote next week on whether the country should begin air strikes in Syria. The conflict this week became more complicated with the shooting down of a Russian jet by Turkey on the Turkey-Syria border.

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—This story ran in full in the November 27 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.