Conflicts Shatter ‘Spell of Peace,’ Pope Declares

While praising breakthroughs in places like Bosnia, Pope John Paul II said Wednesday that the peace of Christmas is violated by violence in the Mideast, Africa and other troubled areas.

Heeding his doctors’ advice to get more rest, John Paul skipped his traditional appointment with the faithful in St. Peter’s Basilica for late-morning Christmas Mass. He did, however, make his “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the City and the World”) address at noon from the central balcony of the massive church.

After reciting words from traditional carols of his native Poland, the pope offered this wish to some 10,000 pilgrims and tourists who braved a driving rain to see him on the balcony:

“May these melodies bring peace and serenity, especially to those places where--as in Bosnia-Herzegovina or Guatemala--after long years of war at home and abroad, weapons have at last fallen silent and men tread anew the path of understanding and harmony.”

But the pope said he was distressed by long-running conflicts “shattering the spell of peace brought by this holy day.”

“I am thinking of Bethlehem and all the Holy Land, where Jesus was born and lived, the land which he loved, the land where hope must not die, despite provocations and profound differences.”

Added the pope: “And how can we forget Africa? At its very heart, in the region of the great lakes, this young continent is experiencing, amid the general indifference of the international community, one of the cruelest human tragedies of its history.”