The Pope condemned conditions for Palestinians in Gaza and urged Russia and Ukraine to “engage in respectful dialogue” in an unusually direct appeal during the first Christmas message of his pontificate.
Delivering his traditional Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) message from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica on a damp and overcast morning, the American pope said that the story of Jesus being born in a stable showed that God had “pitched his fragile tent” among the people of the world.
“How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold?” he said.
