Pope, in New Year's homily, praises women as peacemakers

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis ushered successful the caller twelvemonth Saturday by praising the skills women bring to promoting bid successful the world, and helium equated unit against women to an discourtesy against God.

The Roman Catholic Church marks Jan. 1 arsenic a time dedicated to satellite peace, and a late-morning Mass successful Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Basilica paid tribute to the Virgin Mary’s peculiar spot successful the religion arsenic the parent of Jesus.

Mothers “know however to flooded obstacles and disagreements, and to instill peace,” Francis said during his homily.

“In this way, they alteration problems into opportunities for rebirth and growth. They tin bash this due to the fact that they cognize however to ‘keep,’ to clasp unneurotic the assorted threads of life,” the pontiff said. “We request specified people, susceptible of weaving the threads of communion successful spot of the barbed ligament of struggle and division.”

Francis urged everyone to measurement up efforts to beforehand mothers and to support women.

“How overmuch unit is directed against women! Enough! To wounded a pistillate is to insult God, who from a pistillate took connected our humanity,” the pope said, referring to the Christian content that Jesus was the lad of God.

He lavished praise connected women, including mothers, saying they “look astatine the satellite not to exploit it but truthful that it tin person life. Women who, seeing with the heart, tin harvester dreams and aspirations with factual reality, without drifting into abstraction and sterile pragmatism.”

While pledging successful his papacy to springiness women greater roles successful the church, Francis has besides made wide that the priesthood is reserved for men.

In a tweet earlier the New Year’s Day Mass, Francis elaborated connected his anticipation and strategy for peace.

“All tin enactment unneurotic to physique a much peaceful world, starting from the hearts of individuals and relationships successful the family, past wrong nine and with the environment, and each the mode up to relationships betwixt peoples and nations,” Francis tweeted.

Except for the pope and members of a chorus made up of boys and adults, participants successful the Mass wore look arsenic portion of COVID-19 precautions.

Francis, who is 85 and vaccinated against the coronavirus, wore a surgical disguise during a New Year’s Eve supplication work which a Vatican cardinal presided implicit astatine the basilica. It was a uncommon departure from his shunning of masks during nationalist ceremonies passim the two-year pandemic.