Christians around the world joyfully prepared to recall the birth of Jesus. But in his only public Christmas Mass, in the splendor of St. Peter's Basilica, the pope counter-weighted his joy with a lament for people's excesses and what he described as a "culture of indifference, which not infrequently turns ruthless."
Francis said Jesus "calls us to act soberly, in other words, in a way that is simple, balanced, consistent, capable of seeing and doing what is essential."
Referring to Jesus' birth in a Bethlehem stable, the pope said the child was "born into the poverty of this world; there was no room in the inn for him and his family."
Source:
AP