During Pope Francis' second Christmas Day address since being elected pope, he spoke about the refugee crisis in the Middle East and condemned the Islamic State militants for the "brutal persecution" of civilians, especially Christian minorities, according to Reuters.
In an act of solidarity, Francis made a call to Christian refugees residing in a camp located in Ankawa, Iraq, Reuters reported.
"You are like Jesus on Christmas night. There was no room for him either," Pope Francis told the refugees, according to the Daily Mail. "You're like Jesus on this night, and I bless you and am close to you. I embrace you all and wish for you a holy Christmas," Francis added.
Francis also wrote a letter to all the Christians being driven out of their homes in the Middle East due to ISIS urging them to stay in their homeland "where Christian communities have existed for 2,000 years" and work with their Muslim neighbors to show "a more authentic image of Islam" as a peaceful religion, the Daily Mail reported.
During his "Urbi et Orbi" speech, which means to the city and the world, Francis told the thousands of people who gathered in St. Peter's Square that true Christmas and holiday happiness can only be achieved worldwide when weapons were destroyed, and when destruction is turned "into creativity, hatred into love and tenderness."
Pope Francis urged the end of conflict in African countries, and between the Israelis and Palestinians, while criticizing the Taliban attack which killed more than 130 Pakistani students last week, according to the Daily Mail.
"I ask him, the savior of the world, to look upon our brothers and sisters in Iraq and Syria, who for too long now have suffered the effects of ongoing conflict, and who, together with those belonging to other ethnic and religious groups, are suffering a brutal persecution," Francis said, Reuters reported.
He also touched on senseless abortions as a product of "a culture that does not love life," according to Reuters. "I think also of those infants massacred in bomb attacks, also those where the Son of God was born," Francis said.
Francis prayed for an end to indifference from affluent countries where "so many men and women" are "immersed in worldliness and indifference," and ended Christmas Day with the Vatican Mass at night, according to the Daily Mail.
