Pope Francis on Christmas: Remember the poor, shun materialism

Pope Francis looks on at the end of a mass on Christmas Eve at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Pic/AFP

Pope Francis led the world's Roman Catholics into Christmas urging people to seek a simpler, less materialistic life and condemning the yawning gap between the rich and the poor. Francis, 82, marking the sixth Christmas of his papacy, led a solemn service on Monday of nearly 10,000 people at the St Peter's Basilica for his traditional Christmas Eve Mass, US News reported.

Security was heightened around the Vatican and many other tourist areas in Rome and Italy for the Christmas season.

In his homily, Francis said the infant Jesus, born in poverty in a stable, should make everyone, particularly those who have become "greedy and voracious" reflect on the real meaning of life.

"... Let us ask ourselves: Do I really need all these material objects and complicated recipes for living? Can I manage without all these unnecessary extras and live a life of greater simplicity?" Francis said.

"In our day, for many people, life's meaning is found in possessing, in having an excess of material objects. An insatiable greed marks all human history, even today, when, paradoxically, a few dine luxuriantly while all too many go without the daily bread needed to survive," he said.

Francis, the first pope from Latin America, has made defending the poor a hallmark of his papacy.

On December 22, the Vatican said he had given the homeless in Rome a Christmas gift of a new clinic in St. Peter's Square where they can get free medical help.

The Catholic charity Caritas estimated late in 2017 that there were more than 16,000 homeless in Rome and their number congregating near the Vatican has grown visibly in recent years, especially at night when they cluster under arcades to sleep.

Monday night's Christmas Eve papal Mass was the first held with a new, energy-saving lighting system for the largest church in Christendom. It employed 100,000 LEDs, using only 10 per cent of the energy of the previous system.

On Christmas Day on Tuesday, Pope Francis will deliver his twice-yearly "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message from the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica, the same balcony where he first appeared after his election on March 13, 2013.

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