In a later Christmas blessing, the pope, who made caring for immigrants a key theme of his early papacy, also lamented the situation for migrants and refugees “crossing the American continent.”
Leo, who has criticized US President Donald Trump’s immigration policies in the past, did not mention Trump. In a Christmas Eve homily, the pope said that refusing to help the poor and strangers was tantamount to rejecting God himself.
Pope denounces ‘debris and open wounds’ of war
Leo recently complained several times about conditions for Palestinians in Gaza and told journalists last month that the only solution in the decades-long conflict must be a Palestinian state.
Displaced Palestinians live in makeshift tents amid the rubble in the Al Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza. Source: Anadolu, Getty / Moiz Salhi
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in October after two years of intense Israeli bombing and military operations that followed a deadly attack by Hamas-led fighters on Israeli communities in October 2023. Humanitarian groups say aid is still in short supply to Gaza, where almost the entire population is homeless.
“Fragile is the flesh of defenseless populations, tested by so many wars, ongoing or ended, that leave behind rubble and open wounds,” he said.
“Fragile are the minds and lives of young people who are forced to take up arms, who on the front lines feel the senselessness of what is asked of them and the falsehoods that fill the pompous speeches of those who send them to their deaths,” Leo said.
Calls for an end to the conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan and Mali
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