During the Angelus prayer at the beginning of the new year, Pope Francis called on believers to be courageous in the face of the pandemic. “We need encouragement. We are still living in uncertain and difficult times because of the pandemic. Many fear the future and are burdened by social difficulties, personal problems, the dangers of the economic crisis, injustices and the planet’s economic imbalance,” said the Pope on Saturday.
The pontiff also turned again to the migrants: “When I look at Mary who holds her son in her arms, I think of the young mothers and their children who are fleeing wars and famine or waiting in refugee camps, they are numerous”, said Francis to the pilgrims who had gathered in St. Peter’s Square in bright sunshine. He thanked the Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who had congratulated him on the New Year in his New Years address on Friday evening.
In his sermon on the solemn feast of Mary, the Mother of God, on which the Catholic Church also celebrates World Day of Peace, the head of the church paid tribute to all mothers. Once again the Pope called for an end to violence against women. “The new year begins under the sign of the mother. And since mothers give life and women protect the world, we must all work to promote mothers and protect women,” said Francis at the solemn service in St. Peter’s Basilica.
“How much violence there is against women! That has to end! To hurt a woman means to insult God, who has assumed his human form from a woman,” said the head of the church.
Two years ago Pope Francis had already condemned violence against women in drastic terms at the mass for the solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “Any violence against women is a desecration of God who was born of a woman,” said the Pope at the time. In other respects, too, the subject of Francis occupied himself several times in his pontificate, which lasted almost nine years.