In the papal message delivered at the Vatican on Christmas Eve, Pope Francis said that God loves us all, “even the worst of us”. He was addressing thousands of people attending mass at the Saint Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve.
“You may have mistaken ideas, you may have made a complete mess of things… but the Lord continues to love you,” said the Argentinian Pontiff.
He will return to Saint Peter’s Basilica on Christmas day to deliver his conventional message.
A part of the papal message is linked to the Church scandals, including child abuse, according to a BBC correspondent.
What was the Papal Message?
“Christmas reminds us that God continues to love us all, even the worst of us. To me, to you, to each of us, he says today: “I love you and I will always love you, for you are precious in my eyes,” the pope said in an emotional midnight Mass.
He said that God does not love us because we think and act the right way. He loves as, “plain and simple”.
God’s love is unconditional; “it does not depend on us”.
The leader of the 1.3 billion worldwide Catholics also alluded to the clerical and financial scandals afflicting the Church.
Last week, Pope in a sweeping reform, removed the practice of “pontifical secrecy,” that had “pervaded” the clerical child abuse.
Before that, the Church would keep the sexual abuse cases in secrecy, defending the practice to keep the sanctity of the names of both the victims and the accused.
However, the new papal documents have lifted restrictions on those who can now report the abuses, or say they fell victim to the clerical abuse.
Pop has also changed the Church definition of child pornography from the defined age of 14 and under to 18 and under.
It is to be noted that there emerged thousands of reports of sexual abuses against the clerics of the churches across the world. Also, there are accusations that these reports were kept secret by the senior religious Church officials.
Pope Francis has been under immense pressure to provide leadership by steering the Church through the crisis.
The evening mass gathering had also included children from Venezuela, Iraq, and Uganda.
A BBC correspondent reported from Rome that it is an explicit gesture by the Pope to point global attention towards the immigrant issues, and those who are victims of war.
