The Pope reappeared and spoke of the teachings that …

From Rome

Recalling the World Day of Peace which is commemorated every January 1, Pope Francis returned to the subject on Friday, stressing that peace is achieved in part by educating the heart to care for and value people and creation. In times of pandemic “a recovery and new treatments” are expected, he said, but not only “the vaccine for the body” is necessary but also “the vaccine for the heart” and the latter “is in the care” of other.

And alluding tacitly to the effects that the peoples of the world are expected to have from the anti-ovid vaccines in 2021, in the homily of the Mass celebrated in Saint Peter’s Basilica, The Pope also said: “It will be a good year if we take care of others.”

Francis’s words were read by Vatican Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, who was in charge of celebrating Mass because of a “painful sciatica” that affected Francisco and which, according to an official statement from the Vatican press room, prevented him from presiding over the celebration. On a day of wind and rain, and a completely deserted St. Peter’s Square, the mass brought together less than 100 people, including at least 22 cardinals, all correctly separated and wearing chinstrap.

In the homily dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Francisco also praised women in their reproductive role. “Women are concrete and know how to weave the threads of life with patience. How many women, how many mothers give birth and reborn life, giving the world a future ”. Men, on the other hand, “are often more abstract and we want things immediately,” he said.

At noon on Friday, Vatican television broadcast the Pope’s message for the Angelus in which he was seen alone, reading while standing, in the library of the Apostolic Palace, a place where he usually receives authorities or ambassadors for official meetings . He did not appear to be much weakened which suggested that the message may have been filmed several days before his sciatica pain.

In the Angelus, the Pope made specific reference to his message for the World Day of Peace that the Vatican published about ten days ago. “It is precisely to the care of others and of creation that I dedicated the message of the World Day of Peace that we are celebrating today – recalled Francisco. -. The culture of care as a path to peace. The painful events that mark the path of humanity in the past year, especially the pandemic, teach us how necessary it is to take an interest in the problems of others and to share their concerns. This attitude represents the path that leads to peace, because it favors the construction of a society based on fraternal relations. Each of us is called to make peace, and to do so every day, in all walks of life, by extending a hand to our brother who needs a word of comfort, a gesture of tenderness, of help. solidarity ”.

According to Francisco, it is about developing a mentality and a culture of “taking charge”, in order to overcome indifference, rejection, rivalry, “which unfortunately prevail”. Because peace in life “is not only the absence of war but a life rich in meaning, imposed and lived in personal development and in fraternal sharing with others. (…) A peace always threatened by violence, egoism, evil ”, he added. According to Francis, to achieve peace, in addition to praying, it is necessary to have “a patient and respectful dialogue, built in open collaboration with truth and justice and attentive to the legitimate aspirations of individuals and peoples”. The Pope concluded by sending the world a “cordial wish for a happy and peaceful 2021. Each of us tries to make it a year of fraternal solidarity, of peace for all, a year full of hope ”.

In your last regards The pontiff expressed “his pain and concern” at the escalation of conflict in Yemen, where many innocent people, including children, are paying with their lives. And also in Nigeria, where a few days ago a bishop of the Catholic Church and the driver of his car were kidnapped and about which little is known so far.

In the original message of the World Day of Peace, published on December 17, Francisco also raised two other fundamental questions: the existing social inequalities in the world and the money allocated to armaments.

Faced with the worsening of inequalities within and between nations, I would therefore like to invite the heads of international organizations and governments, of the economic and scientific sector, of social communication and of educational institutions to take in hand the “compass” of aforementioned principles (peace, justice and conservation of creation), to give a common course to the process of globalization, a truly human course “and that all this will only be possible with a” women “.

And with regard to conflicts, the Pope had asked himself: “What has led to the normalization of conflicts in the world?” (…) The causes of conflicts are numerous but the result is always the same: destruction and humanitarian crisis (…) How many wasted resources are there for weapons, in particular nuclear weapons, resources which could be used for higher priorities important to ensuring human security, such as promoting peace and integral human development, alleviating poverty and meeting health needs? (…) What a courageous decision it would be to establish with the money used for arms and other military expenditure “a world fund” to be able to definitively defeat hunger and help the development of the poorest countries “.