Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, has called out individuals who seek wealth and power at the expense of others, urging them to be more like Jesus Christ, the Christian divinity, who was poor during his time on earth.
In a Christmas Eve homily decrying war, poverty, and greedy consumerism, Pope Francis referred to Jesus’ humble beginnings in a stable to scold those who are “ravenous” for wealth and power at the expense of the vulnerable, including children. The Associated Press reported this from the Vatican City.
Nigerian Christians, like those everywhere else, celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25 each year.
About seven thousand people, including tourists and pilgrims, gathered in the beautiful St. Peter’s Basilica for Francis to preside over evening Mass as the sunset. They lined up behind rows of white-robed pontiffs.
He learned a lot from Jesus’s lowly beginnings in a manger.
Francis observed that while animals are fed in their stalls, people in our world “consume even their neighbours, their brothers and sisters, in their hunger for wealth and power.”
“How many wars have we seen? And in how many places, even today, are human dignity and freedom treated with contempt?”
Without referencing a specific war or scenario, Francis remarked, “As always, the principal victims of this human greed are the weak and vulnerable.”
Reading his sermon with a voice that sounded fatigued and nearly hoarse, the pope said, “This Christmas, too, as in the case of Jesus, a world ravenous for money, power, and pleasure does not make room for the little ones, for the so many unborn, poor, and forgotten children.”
“I think, above all, the children devoured by war, poverty and injustice.”