On Christmas, pope prays for pandemic's end, peace dialogues
Source: AP
By NICOLE WINFIELD
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis prayed Saturday for an end to the coronavirus pandemic, using his Christmas Day address to urge health care for all, vaccines for the poor and for dialogue to prevail in resolving the world’s conflicts.
Amid a record-setting rise in COVID-19 cases in Italy this week, only a few thousand people flocked to a rain-soaked St. Peter’s Square for Francis’ annual “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the city and the world”) Christmas address. Normally, the square would be packed with tens of thousands of holiday well-wishers.
At least they could gather this year. Italy’s 2020 holiday lockdown forced Francis to deliver a televised address from inside the Apostolic Palace to prevent crowds from forming in the square. Although Italy this week counted more than 50,000 cases in a single day for the first time, the government has not ordered another lockdown.
The pope’s Christmas Day speech gives him an opportunity to draw a global audience’s attention to conflicts big and small. This year was no different. Francis lamented ongoing conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, newly flaring tensions in Ukraine and Ethiopia, and an “unprecedented crisis” in Lebanon.
Pope Francis looks at the crowd after delivering the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for 'to the city and to the world' ) Christmas' day blessing from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-pope-francis-health-pandemics-europe-a051d5a9dad3a3b23d300b4d92559387
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