ROME — Pope Francis urged boys and girls to pray for children “forced to live the terrible and dark days of war” after his Angelus address Sunday.
Following an Italian custom, children brought little statuettes of the baby Jesus (Bambinelli) to Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican Sunday for the pope to bless them. The children then take the figurines home with them to use in their Nativity scenes.
Addressing the “dear boys and girls,” the pontiff invited them “to pray, before the creche, that the Nativity of the Lord will bring a ray of peace to children all over the world.”
In particular, the pope urged prayers for those children who are “forced to live the terrible and dark days of war, this war in Ukraine that destroys many lives, so many lives, and many children.”
Meanwhile, Vatican News reported Sunday on the energy crisis facing Ukraine this Christmas as explained by the head of Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk.
“The cold is the reason for the fifth wave of internally displaced people,” Archbishop Shevchuk said. “From the beginning of the war, first the oligarchs took the money and fled, then those who, with their own means, helped themselves and found hotels and other places and still the people without anything who fled empty-handed.”
Pope Francis again expressed his distress Wednesday over the situation in “tormented” Ukraine, just as Russian President Vladimir Putin has raised the specter of nuclear war. https://t.co/88NWCivpM2
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“Finally, there was a fourth wave of refugees who did not go too far, but looked for the first village and waited for the moment to return home,” he continued. “Now the new wave, the fifth: the thermal refugees fleeing not from war but from the cold and crowd into central-eastern Ukraine.”
The archbishop reported Saturday that the Russians had attacked southern Ukraine, particularly Odesa, with so-called “kamikaze drones” that knocked out much of Odesa’s vital infrastructure, a tactic he has repeatedly denounced as a war crime because of the intentional targeting of the civilian population.
“Thousands of people found themselves without access to electricity,” he said. “In the same way, the newly restored electricity supply infrastructure in our glorious Kherson was once again destroyed.”
At the same time, Shevchuk said Sunday that Ukraine will still celebrate the joy of Christmas this year.
“We have the custom of singing Christmas carols to our neighbors, especially those most in need, to share joy and good wishes. Everyone now asks: will there be Christmas joy, will it be permissible to sing or should we be silent and cry?” he related.
“I said, ‘yes and yes, there will be Christmas. We have the right to celebrate the Christmas joy that does not come from profane entertainment, but from Heaven because the Prince of Peace will be born.’”
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