Pope Francis began the New Year with a new call for the faithful to reject abortion and called for a “firm commitment” to protect and respect life from conception to natural death.
Francis, 88, celebrated a New Year’s Mass on Wednesday in St. Peter’s Basilica dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus.
In his homily, he prayed that everyone would learn to care for “every child born of a woman” and protect “the precious gift of life: life in the womb, the lives of children, the lives of the suffering, the poor , the elderly, the lonely and the dying.”
“I ask for a firm commitment to respect the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person can value their own life and everyone can look with hope to the future,” he said, using the formula used by the Church. in his opposition to abortion and assisted suicide.
In recent years, the Argentine Jesuit has spoken more emphatically about abortion than he did at the beginning of his pontificate. After two doctrine-focused popes, Francis complained in the early months of his papacy in 2013 that the Church had become obsessed with “petty rules” on contentious issues such as abortion.
Francis now regularly refers to obtaining an abortion as “hiring a hitman to solve a problem.” He recently sparked outrage in Belgium when he criticized its abortion law as “homicidal” and announced that he wanted to beatify Belgium’s late king, who abdicated for a day rather than pass legislation legalizing the procedure. The Vatican recently announced that the beatification process is underway for King Baudouin, who died in 1993.
The morning Mass was the last big event in Francis’ busy Christmas calendar. For the pope, who suffers from recurring respiratory problems, this year’s season posed an additional challenge with the start of the Vatican’s great Holy Year, a celebration of faith that occurs once every quarter of a century and is expected to draw 32 million pilgrims to Rome during 2025.
Source: AP
Source: Ambito
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