"Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms that even today prevents him from finding room in the world."
In his annual Christmas address to cardinals and bishops who work at the Vatican, Pope Francis said the real division in the church since Vatican II is “between lovers and those who have lost that initial passion.”
Francis condemned the killing of two women in the Holy Family parish in Gaza, and the attack on the convent of Mother Teresa’s nuns that care for disabled persons.
Vietnam’s Catholic bishops and community have long wanted the pope to come, and Francis has throughout his pontificate given special attention to Asia.