‘Need for unity against terror atrocities’

Pope Francis urged the world in his Christmas message on Friday to unite to end atrocities by Islamist militants that he said were causing immense suffering in many countries.

Security was tight at the Vatican as Pope Francis, marking the third Christmas since his election in 2013, read his traditional Christmas Day “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) address from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. Tens of thousands of people had to have their bags checked as they entered the Vatican area and then go through airport-style screening if they wanted to enter St. Peter's Square. After calling for an end to the civil wars in Syria and Libya, the Pope said:

“May the attention of the international community be unanimously directed to ending the atrocities which in those countries, as well as in Iraq, Libya, Yemen and sub-Saharan Africa, even now reap numerous victims, cause immense suffering and do not even spare the historical and cultural patrimony of entire peoples.”

He called for peace between Israelis and Palestinians in the area where Jesus was born. He asked God to bring consolation and strength to Christians who are being persecuted around the world and called for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, South Sudan and Ukraine.

The Pope’s words were echoed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in his Christmas Day address, in which the leader of the world’s 80 million Anglicans said Christians in West Asia faced extinction at the hands of Islamic State.

Archbishop Justin Welby said IS was “igniting a trail of fear, violence, hatred and determined oppression.” He branded the group “a Herod of today”, in a reference to the ruthless king of Judea at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ.