Pope Calls for Spreading ‘Message of Peace’

VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II this week called on Christians to counter conflict in the Holy Land and Afghanistan with the Christmas “message of peace.”

Addressing about 5,000 pilgrims attending his last general audience of the year, the Roman Catholic pontiff said: “In the face of continuing conflicts in the Holy Land, Afghanistan and other parts of the world, Christians are called to proclaim ever more insistently the message of peace sung by the angels in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago.”

In its end-of-the-year statistics on the pope’s weekly general audiences, the Vatican reported that John Paul has held 1,018 general audiences in the 23 years of his papacy, receiving more than 16.5 million pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square or the Paul VI Audience Hall.