Pope: Now’s the time to end indifference, ‘false neutrality’

A runner wears a traditional hat as he holds a poster with the image of Pope Francis before the annual “Sao Silvestre Run” (Saint Silvester Road Race), an global race through the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil, December 31, 2015.

“For this reason, the birth of the Son of God inaugurates a new era, a new computation of time, the era which witnesses the fulfilment of the ancient promise”.

Security was tight. Police checked the bags of people blocks away from St. Peter’s Square and about 10,000 people went through additional, airport-style screening to get into St. Peter’s Basilica and hear Francis celebrate Mass. Rather, it should be considered from God’s fulfillment of his promise to humanity. Good things don’t make the news.

“These signs of love can’t and mustn’t be obscured by the tyranny of evil”, he said, adding that good always triumphs.

“We can not forget that many days have been marked by violence, death, unspeakable suffering by so many innocent people, refugees forced to leave their homelands, of men, women and children without homes, food or support”, he says.

“The company of mercy is a source of light to better understand what we’ve lived through, and a source of hope that accompanies us at the beginning of a New Year”, he said.

Francis cited no country, continent or conflict.

Francis encouraged the faithful not to be discouraged by the bad news of the year, such as the numbers of people who are homeless, hungry and victims of violence.

“Sometimes we ask ourselves how it is possible that human injustice persists unabated, and that the arrogance of the powerful continues to demean the weak, relegating them to the most squalid outskirts of our world”.