Vatican City - Pope Francis used his
Christmas message on Monday to call for a negotiated two-state
solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after US President Donald Trump stoked regional tensions with his
recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Francis spoke of the Middle East conflict and other world
flashpoints in his "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world)
address, four days after more than 120 countries backed a UN resolution urging the United States to reverse its decision on
Jerusalem.
"Let us pray that the will to resume dialogue may prevail
between the parties and that a negotiated solution can finally
be reached, one that would allow the peaceful coexistence of two
states within mutually agreed and internationally recognised
borders," he said, referring to the Israelis and Palestinians.
"We see Jesus in the children of the Middle East who
continue to suffer because of growing tensions between Israelis
and Palestinians," he said in his address, delivered from the
balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to tens of thousands of people.
It was the second time that the pope has spoken out publicly
about Jerusalem since Trump's decision on Dec. 6. On that day,
Francis called for the city's "status quo" to be respected, lest
new tensions in the Middle East further inflame world conflicts.
Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their
future independent state, whereas Israel has declared the whole
city to be its "united and eternal" capital.
Francis, leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics,
urged people to see the defenceless baby Jesus in the children
who suffer the most from war, migration and natural calamities
caused by man today.
"Today, as the winds of war are blowing in our world ...
Christmas invites us to focus on the sign of the child and to
recognise him in the faces of little children, especially those
for whom, like Jesus, 'there is no place in the inn,'" he said.
OPEN HEARTS FOR REFUGEES
Francis, celebrating the fifth Christmas of his pontificate,
said he had seen Jesus in the children he met during his recent
trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh, and he called for adequate
protection of the dignity of minority groups in that region.
More than 600,000 Muslim Rohingya people have fled mainly
Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh in recent months. The pope had to
tread a delicate diplomatic line during his visit, avoiding the
word "Rohingya" while in Myanmar, which does not recognise them
as a minority group, though he used the term when in Bangladesh.
"Jesus knows well the pain of not being welcomed and how
hard it is not to have a place to lay one’s head. May our hearts
not be closed as they were in the homes of Bethlehem," he said.
He also urged the world to see Jesus in the innocent
children suffering from wars in Syria and Iraq and also in
Yemen, complaining that its people had been "largely forgotten,
with serious humanitarian implications for its people, who
suffer from hunger and the spread of diseases".
He also listed conflicts affecting children in South Sudan,
Somalia, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African
Republic, Ukraine and Venezuela.
At his Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday,
Francis strongly defended immigrants, comparing them to Mary and
Joseph finding no place to stay in Bethlehem and saying faith
demands that foreigners be welcomed.