In Christmas Address, Pope Francis Blasts Excess, Materialism, Culture of Indifference The Associated Press
go to original December 25, 2015

Pope Francis celebrates Midnight Mass in St. Peter's Basilica (Rome Reports)

In his Christmas Eve homily, Pope Francis noted the simplicity of Jesus’ birth as he rebuked what he called societies’ intoxication with consumerism, pleasure, abundance and wealth.

Christians around the world joyfully prepared to recall the birth of Jesus. But in his only public Christmas Mass, in the splendor of St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope counter-weighted his joy with a lament for people’s excesses and what he described as a “culture of indifference, which not infrequently turns ruthless.”

Francis said Jesus “calls us to act soberly, in other words, in a way that is simple, balanced, consistent, capable of seeing and doing what is essential.”

Referring to Jesus’s birth in a Bethlehem stable, the pope said the child was “born into the poverty of this world; there was no room in the inn for him and his family.”

Francis also sounded a cry to right injustices. “In a world which all too often is merciless to the sinner and lenient to the sin, we need to cultivate a strong sense of justice,” he said.

Since being elected pope in 2013, Francis has tried to shape the church into one marked more by loving mercy than rigid judgment. He insists that the needs of the poor and others, including refugees and migrants, be paramount.

Read the rest at The Times of Israel

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