In first Christmas message as pope, Leo asks faithful to remember those suffering in world

VATICAN CITY — Under grey Roman skies and amid what he called a “troubled world,” Pope Leo XIV used his Christmas homilies to urge the world to recognize human fragility.

The first-ever American pope used what is traditionally a solemn and spiritual point on the Catholic calendar — Christmas morning — to denounce violence, displacement, and what he labeled a global economy that treats people as “mere merchandise.”

Leo, who was born 70 years ago in Chicago, said the story of Jesus being born in a stable showed that God “pitched his tent” among the people of the world, something the pontiff said should make us “think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain and cold.”

He continued: We must pray for “so many other refugees and displaced persons on every continent or in the makeshift shelters of thousands of homes people in our own cities,” the pope said. 

Unlike his predecessor, Pope Francis, Leo has usually stayed away from overt political reference in his sermons, but that was not the case during the St. Peter’s Basilica masses for Christmas and Christmas Eve. 

But most of the tens of thousands of faithful gathered beneath drizzling rain on Wednesday, Christmas Eve for the Vigil Mass, and under threatening grey skies the following morning, the message was less important than the event itself.

“To celebrate Mass at St. Peter’s with an American pope on Christmas is something my family will never forget,” Suzanne Richards, 49, a school administrator from Annandale, Virginia, told The Washington Times. “I expected it to be meaningful, and it was.”

Richards, a single mother of two high school students, said she was deciding where to take her family over Christmas break when Pope Leo was elected in May. “Right away, we decided to make our trip to Rome and be here for Christmas Mass.”

It wasn’t just Americans who were basking in the symbolism of the day.

“Christmas Mass at the Vatican is always special but that is especially true for a new pope,” Annalisa Severano, a 70-year-old retired judicial clerk from a town near Florence, Italy, told The Washington Times after the Christmas Eve service. “I saw the weather would not be great, but I just told my husband, ‘Forget about the weather, we’re going to Rome to see the pope on Christmas.’”

The pontiff, who effortlessly switched between English and Italian in his remarks, even acknowledged the uncomfortable conditions on the evening before Christmas, and said he regretted not being able to celebrate with more of the faithful inside the Basilica. 

“The Basilica of St. Peter’s is very large, but, unfortunately, it is not large enough to receive all of you,” Leo said in English. “I admire and respect and thank you all for your wanting to be here this evening.”

Then, slipping seamlessly into Italian, he continued, “Despite the weather, we want to celebrate the Christmas feast together … please follow the celebration on the screen.”

The 2½-hour celebration ended with a short homily from the pope, who criticized the globalized search for financial profit at all costs.

“While a distorted economy leads us to treat human beings as mere merchandise, God becomes like us, revealing the infinite dignity of every person,” the pontiff said.

The following morning, Leo — this time speaking outdoors, from beneath the balustrade of St. Peter’s Basilica — continued his unusual foray into geopolitical matters, expressing sympathy for the homeless around the world and especially those displaced by global conflict.

“Fragile is the flesh of defenseless populations, tried by so many wars, ongoing or concluded, and leaving behind rubble and open wounds,” the pope said. “Fragile are the minds and lives of young people forced to take up arms, who from the front lines feel the senselessness of what is asked of them and the falsehoods in the pompous speeches of those who send them to their deaths.”

In his biannual “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the City and the World”) message after Christmas Mass, the pope said he prayed for “justice, peace, and stability for Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and Syria” and he made an appeal for a ceasefire in Ukraine, asking that the “clamor of weapons” cease and that leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and the international community “engage in “sincere, direct, and respectful dialogue.”

The “Urbi et Orbi” message is a more traditional forum for discussions of global matters.

The Christmas services begin the countdown to the end of the Holy Year Jubilee, which will formally close on Jan. 6. The Jubilee was opened a year ago by Francis, who died in April, requiring a rare Jubilee Year conclave, which elected the former Cardinal Robert Prevost as pope in May.