Zimpapers Logo

Pope Francis wished courage and warmth for the world in his Christmas Eve mass homily, as God is stronger than “darkness and corruption.”

He also made a phone call to Iraqi refugees who fled ISIS violence, saying that they are “like Jesus” on this night.

“Through the course of history, the light that shatters the darkness reveals to us that God is Father and that his patient fidelity is stronger than darkness and corruption,” said the pontiff, leading a mass for thousands of Catholics in St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican.

The 78-year-old added that God does not know “outbursts of anger or impatience.”

“He’s always there, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, waiting to catch from afar a glimpse of the lost son as he returns,” he said.

The pope asked the believers if they have “the courage to welcome with tenderness the difficulties and problems of those who are near to us?”

“Or do we prefer impersonal solutions, perhaps effective but devoid of the warmth of the Gospel? How much the world needs tenderness today!”

“Life must be met with goodness, with meekness. When we realize that God is in love with our smallness, that he made himself small in order to better encounter us, we can’t help but open our hearts to him.”

This is Pope Francis’ second Christmas as pope, having been elected pontiff in March 2013.

On Thursday morning, he delivered his traditional Christmas Day blessing, called ‘Urbi et Orbi’ (to the city and the world) from the balcony of St Peter’s Square to tens of thousands of believers.

Hours before the Christmas Eve mass the pontiff made a telephone call to a Christian refugee camp in Ankawa, a suburb of Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, where people have fled to escape the atrocities of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants.

“You’re like Jesus on this night, and I bless you and am close to you,” he said in the call broadcast live by TV2000, the television of the Italian bishops’ conference.

“I embrace you all and wish for you a holy Christmas.”

The pope said he particularly thinks about “the children and elderly.”

“Innocent children, children who have died, exploited children . . . I’m thinking, too, about grandparents, about the older people who have lived their lives, and who must now bear this cross.”

Meanwhile, the Pope prepared rebukes instead of greetings for this year’s Christmas meeting with the Curia. He has urged Vatican officials to stop feeling “superior to everyone,” to give up on the “terrorism of gossip” and recover from “spiritual Alzheimer’s.”

The cardinals welcomed this year’s Christmas address from their leader — a list of 15 “Ailments of the Curia” — with tepid applause and few smiles.

One of the sins from the list was the “disease” of feeling “immortal,” or “essential. Sometimes, [Officials of the Curia] feel themselves ‘lords of the manor’ [padroni in Italian] — superior to everyone and everything,” Pope Francis said in his annual Christmas greeting, according to Vatican Radio.

The Pope also said he sees no reason for those in power in the Vatican to wear a “funeral face” all day long, whereas they’re supposed to be joyful worshippers of God.

The Pope lashed out at those trying to gain more power at all costs, including by defaming or discrediting others publicly. He warned against the “terrorism of gossip” which can “kill the reputation of our colleagues and brothers in cold blood.”

He also compared gossiping to “satanic assassination” of other people’s good names.

Francis, the first non-European pope in 1,300 years, has criticised the Italian-dominated Vatican bureaucracy before and is resolved on reforming the institution. “The Curia needs to change, to improve . . . a Curia that does not criticise itself, that does not bring itself up to date, that does not try to improve, is a sick body,” he said, Reuters reported.

The greeting comes at a tense time for the Roman Curia, the central governing body of the Holy See which oversees the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church.

Pope Francis is reportedly drawing up plans to revamp the whole bureaucratic structure as well as finances, merging offices to make them more efficient, transparent and responsive.

The Pope called the violence inflicted by Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria a “profoundly grave sin against God.” He also urged constructive dialogue with Muslims based on “mutual respect and friendship.”

“Taking away the peace of a people, committing every act of violence, especially when directed against the weakest and defenceless, is a profoundly grave sin against God, since it means showing contempt for the image of God which is in man,” said Francis during his liturgy at the Patriarchal Church of St George in Istanbul.

The Pope was speaking on the last day of his weekend trip to Turkey, which has already provided asylum for about two million Syrian refugees. On Saturday, the Pope condemned the “barbaric violence” by IS jihadists aimed against Christians, Yazidis and other religious groups.

“As religious leaders, we are obliged to denounce all violations against human dignity and human rights,” Francis told Mehmet Gormez, Turkey’s top cleric and other religious officials who gathered at the Religious Affairs Directorate. — AFP