POPE Francis yesterday used his Christmas message to lament the ‘icy winds of war’ buffeting humanity. He made an impassioned plea for an immediate end to the fighting in Ukraine, a 10-month-old conflict he decried as ‘senseless’.

At noon in Rome, Francis delivered the traditional “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and to the world) speech from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. Some 70,000 tourists, pilgrims and residents of the city packed at St. Peter’s Square to listen to the pontiff and receive his blessing.

Francis also cited long-running conflicts in the Middle East, including in the Holy Land ‘where in recent months, violence and confrontations have increased, bringing death and injury in their wake’.

He also prayed for a lasting truce in Yemen and for reconciliation in Iran and Myanmar, and cited violence and conflicts in Africa’s Sahel region. The Pope lamented that on Christmas, the ‘path of peace’ is blocked by social forces that include ‘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. 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. And in that small and innocent face, let us see the faces of all those children who, everywhere in the world, long for peace.”

Francis urged the faithful to remember the millions of Ukrainians who were without electricity or heating 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 said as he gestured toward those in the crowd waving small Ukrainian flags.

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!”’