![Pope Leo XIV delivers the Christmas’ “Urbi et Orbi” (“to the City and to the World”) message from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, on December 25, 2025. [Isabella Bonotto - Anadolu Agency]](https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/AA-20251225-40074428-40074425-POPE_LEO_XIV_DELIVERS_THE_CHRISTMAS_URBI_ET_ORBI_MESSAGE-1.jpg)
Delivering his first Christmas Mass address from St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday, Pope Leo XIV evoked the plight of Gazans facing weeks of harsh winter conditions, alongside refugees and displaced persons worldwide, Anadolu reports. “Since the Word was made flesh, humanity now speaks crying out with God’s own desire to encounter us. The Word has pitched His fragile tent among us. How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed to weeks of rain, and wind, and cold?” Pope Leo said. He also drew attention to similar hardships faced by other refugees and displaced persons on every continent as well as homeless people living under “makeshift shelters.” “Fragile is the flesh of defenseless populations tried by so many […]
