Zu New Year’s Day 2023 was crowded on St. Peter’s Square. When Pope Francis walked up to the window of the Apostolic Palace to pray the Angelus, just in time for lunchtime, the applause of the “brothers and sisters” erupted as Francis greeted the faithful gathered at his feet.
The old hustle and bustle has returned to Rome after the pandemic, especially on high festivals of the Catholic faith and tourism. Both apply to Christmas and New Year, pilgrims come to the feast of the birth of the Savior and tourists to the holiday at the end of the year, 40,000 came on Sunday at the Angelus prayer with Pope Francis. It was hardly about his deceased predecessor.
Only at the beginning of the very short Angelus celebration does Pope Francis mention his predecessor Benedict XVI, who died on New Year’s Eve. Applause erupted again, but more subdued.
Pope Francis reiterated his thanks to God “for the gift of this faithful servant of the Gospel and of the Church” who had been a “generous and kind person” at the New Year’s Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. The universal church can be grateful “for the good that he has done”. The crowd clapped.
The topic is not Benedict, but world peace
Then, in a way, Francis went over to the theological agenda in his exposition. New Year’s Day is the Catholic Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary – and the World Day of Peace of the Catholic Church. So the “care of the Mother of God” as well as the struggle and prayer for peace, especially in the Ukraine, were in the foreground. Mary’s language, the Pope said, is “the language of motherhood,” a silent language of caring and nurturing. Mary and her language reminded us that “if we really want the new year to be good, we must abandon the languages, gestures and choices influenced by selfishness and learn the language of love, which means caring,” Francis said.
If the Catholic Christians of the world celebrate the World Day of Peace again this January 1st, the Pope continued, they must once again be aware of the responsibility “that is entrusted to us to build the future”. In the face of “the personal, societal and social crises we are experiencing, in the face of the tragedy of war” we are called “to meet the challenges of our world with responsibility and compassion”. In 1967, Pope Paul VI. declared New Year’s Day to be the World Day of Peace for all Catholics. The motto this year is: “No one can save themselves. Starting again after Covid-19 to explore paths of peace together.”
Where this path seems completely blocked these days in Europe was easy to recognize from the flags above the crowd: blue and yellow everywhere, the Ukrainian national colors. The cry of “No to war” and “No to arms” is rising throughout the world, the Pope said. Some Ukrainians didn’t quite understand the papal double-no: for a victim of an attack, making peace with fewer weapons or no weapons at all is not a convincing option. Ever since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Pope Francis seems to have been struggling to find a consistent stance: at times he harshly condemns the Russian aggression, at others he blames the West for a significant part of Putin’s war in Ukraine.
