On this first day of the year, Pope Francis invited people to protect life “from conception to natural death, so that each person can look to the future with hope.” In the name of Mary, his thoughts go to the mothers who “have their hearts full of pain because of the war.”
Vatican City () – On the first day of the year, the Church invites us to contemplate the mystery of Jesus “born of a woman”, in the Divine Maternity of Mary. And precisely “dignify the life of each “born of a woman”; “It is the fundamental basis for building a civilization of peace.” Respect “from conception to natural death,” as well as the horrors of current wars.
This is the message that Pope Francis addressed to the world on the 58th World Day of Peace. On January 1 it was inaugurated with mass in the Vatican Basilica. In his homily, the pontiff invited us to focus on Jesus “born of a woman.” “Let us then entrust this new year that begins,” he said, “to Mary, Mother of God, so that we too may learn like Her to find the greatness of God in the smallness of life; so that we learn to care for every creature born of a woman, above all protecting the precious gift of life, as Mary did: life in the womb, the life of children, the life of those who suffer, the life of the poor, the life of the elderly, that of those who are alone, that of the dying.”
“And today, World Day of Peace – he added -, we are all called to accept this invitation that springs from the maternal heart of Mary: protect life, care for wounded life. Therefore, I ask for a firm commitment to promote respect for dignity of human life, from conception to natural death, so that every person can love their own life and look to the future with hope.”
The Pope entrusted the Jubilee Year to Mary: “Let us entrust to her the questions, the worries, the sufferings, the joys and everything we carry in our hearts. She is a mother! Let us entrust the whole world to her, so that hope may be reborn.” , so that peace finally flourishes among all the peoples of the earth.”
At the Angelus, Pope Francis invited us to look at the “mothers whose hearts are full of pain, because their children have been taken from them by violence, by pride, by hatred.” How beautiful is peace, which joys the lives of people! How inhuman is war, which breaks the hearts of mothers!
The Pontiff thanked all those who work to find solutions to the wars in Palestine, in Israel, in the martyred Ukraine, in Myanmar. “Let us pray that the fighting on all fronts stops and we can work for peace and reconciliation – he added -. “War always destroys, war is always a defeat.” Finally, citing his message for this World Day of Peace, he renewed once again the jubilee call to “cancel or reduce as much as possible the debts of the poorest countries.”
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