peace

In a country where most people are Christian and all are suffering from decades of violence and atrocities, Pope Francis told the Congolese to lay down their weapons and their rancor.

After flying across the equator, Pope Francis was welcomed warmly — in every sense — to Congo where Catholics make up the majority of the population.

In a meeting with the pope Jan. 25, members of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religions once again extended the invitation to him. Archbishop Shevchuk said they did not receive a clear response on the possibility.

In his Christmas message, he offered special greetings to “our soldiers at the front,” to civilians and soldiers who have been wounded and to all those mourning the loss of loved ones.

The day after Christmas the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, which emphasizes how the story of Jesus’ birth is not a “fairy tale,” but a call to live as witnesses of the Gospel, Pope Francis said.

The theme for the pope’s 2023 message was “No one can be saved alone,” and the text urged people to learn from the experience of the global effort to combat COVID-19 and to recognize the poverty and inequalities the pandemic laid bare, especially as regards to access to food, medicine, health care, education and technology.

With the arrival of “greater numbers of families and individuals at our border with Mexico,” the federal government must provide “critical infrastructure” to “meet their humanitarian needs.”

The celebration, held Dec. 4, is the oldest religious procession in Los Angeles. It was established by Mexican Catholics who fled persecution by the Mexican government during the Cristero War in 1931.