Pope Francis delivers the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for ‘to town and to the world’) Christmas day blessing from the principle balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on the Vatican on Sunday.

Gregorio Borgia/AP

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Gregorio Borgia/AP

Pope Francis delivers the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for ‘to town and to the world’) Christmas day blessing from the principle balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on the Vatican on Sunday.

Gregorio Borgia/AP

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis used his Christmas message Sunday to lament the “icy winds of war” buffeting humanity and to make an impassioned plea for a right away finish to the fighting in Ukraine, a 10-month-old battle he decried as “senseless.”

At midday native time, Francis delivered the standard “Urbi et Orbi” (Latin for “‘to town and to the world”) speech from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Tens of thousands of tourists, pilgrims and residents of Rome crowded into St. Peter’s Square to listen to the pontiff and to receive his blessing.

Francis additionally cited long-running conflicts within the Middle East, together with within the Holy Land, “where in recent months violence and confrontations have increased, bringing death and injury in their wake.” In addition, he prayed for an enduring truce in Yemen and for reconciliation in Iran and Myanmar.

He lamented that on Christmas, the “path of peace” is blocked by social forces that embrace “attachment to power and money, pride, hypocrisy, falsehood.”

“Indeed, we must acknowledge with sorrow that, even as the Prince of Peace is given to us, the icy winds of war continue to buffet humanity,” Francis mentioned.

“If we want it to be Christmas, the birth of Jesus and of peace, let us look to Bethlehem and contemplate the face of the child who is born for us,” he said. “And in that small and harmless face, allow us to see the faces of all these youngsters who, in every single place on the earth, lengthy for peace.”

Francis urged the faithful to remember the millions of Ukrainians who were without electricity or heating Sunday because of Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, as well as the millions more living as refugees abroad or displaced within their country since the Feb. 24 invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Let us also see the faces of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters, who are experiencing this Christmas in the dark and cold, far from their homes due to the devastation caused by 10 months of war,” the pontiff mentioned.

The pope prayed that the Lord will “enlighten the minds of those who have the power to silence the thunder of weapons and put an immediate end to this senseless war!”

“On this day, as we sit around a well-spread table, may we not avert our gaze from Bethlehem, a town whose name means ‘house of bread,’ but think of all those, especially the children, who go hungry while huge amounts of food daily go to waste and resources are being spent on weapons.”

“The struggle in Ukraine has additional aggravated this example, placing total peoples prone to famine, particularly in Afghanistan and within the international locations of the Horn of Africa,” Francis mentioned.

Early in the way in which, sea mines and a Russian naval blockade of Ukraine’s ports choked off shipments from the Black Sea ports of Ukraine, one of many world’s largest producers of grain and corn. An settlement brokered by Turkey and the U.N.has sought to deal with the issue.