Weary Pontiff Laments Rash of Hostilities

VATICAN CITY —  A weary Pope John Paul II tempered the Roman Catholic Church’s joy at Christmas on Sunday with a mournful litany of conflicts that have bloodied much of the world.

John Paul opened his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” message--Latin for “to the city (of Rome) and the world”--with a tribute to families as the church nears the end of its Year of the Family.

Then, as has been his custom throughout his 16-year papacy, he turned the end of his message from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica into a lament for places without peace.

“As I look at families in the light of Christmas, I cannot but turn my thoughts to the greater human family, unfortunately torn by persistent forms of selfishness and violence,” the Pope said.

“What are we to say of the Sudan with its ‘forgotten’ war and of Algeria, where murderous violence holds the whole people hostage? And the very land where Jesus was born, does it not continue to be a theater of conflicts and a place of division?” the pontiff asked.

John Paul’s speech was prepared in advance, but violent events of the day seemed to make his words ring louder.

Near the main entrance to Jerusalem, an Islamic militant blew himself up, wounding 12 people.

In Algiers, passengers on a French jetliner were hostages of Muslim militants, who killed at least three people.

The Pope also mentioned the fighting in the former Yugoslavia, “tearing apart the Balkans,” as well as civil war or tensions in southern Russia, Angola, Rwanda and Burundi.

He also singled out “new centers of tension,” including the Caucasus Mountains. Grozny, the capital of the Russian Caucasus region of Chechnya, was in ruins Sunday after nearly a week of Russian aerial attacks.

The 74-year-old pontiff appeared tired Sunday after midnight Mass in the basilica, a private Mass at dawn in his chapel, and a public service in the basilica late Sunday morning.

John Paul shuffled down the main aisle of the basilica, which is about the length of a football field. He has had problems walking since surgery to repair a broken thigh bone earlier this year.

As he left the basilica, the Pope stopped to shake hands with children along the aisle and waved with his right hand, its pinkie bandaged. He injured the finger when it was caught in a car door last month.

At the late morning Mass, the Pope invoked the baby Jesus to “move men to lay down their arms and to draw close in a universal embrace of peace.”

A prayer for peace was offered in Tamil, a language of Sri Lanka, an island nation torn by civil strife that the Pope will visit in January.

To the 40,000 or so people gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope offered Christmas wishes in 54 languages.