‘Thinking of Palestine, of Israel’: Pope’s Christmas addresses overshadowed by war

Pope Francis appeals for peace while kicking off Christmas celebrations with a mass at Saint Peter’s Basilica, as the Israel-Hamas war rages in the Gaza Strip.

“Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms that even today prevents him from finding room in the world,” the pope tells some 6,500 faithful who attend the traditional service.

Francis’s address never mentions Israel or Gaza by name, but he makes numerous references to violence and war.

Arguing that justice will not come “from a show of force,” the pontiff says Jesus “does not eliminate injustice from above by a show of force, but from below, by a show of love.”

“He does not burst on the scene with limitless power,” he says.

During his weekly Angelus prayer earlier today, the pope said that “we are close to our brothers and sisters who are suffering from war — we are thinking of Palestine, of Israel, of Ukraine.”