Pope Francis offers prayers for ‘the tormented Ukrainian people and the Palestinian and Israeli populations’ as he recalls 2023 as a year marked by wartime suffering

Pope Francis offered prayers for the “tormented Ukrainian people and the Palestinian and Israeli people” during his traditional Sunday blessing.

The pope gave his blessing on New Year's Eve from a window overlooking St. Peter's Square in the Vatican and remembered 2023 as a year marked by war suffering.

In addition to his prayers for Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, he also spoke of “the Sudanese people and many others” who have suffered.

“At the end of the year we will have the courage to ask ourselves how many lives have been destroyed by armed conflict, how many deaths and how much destruction, how much suffering and how much poverty,” the Pope said.

Over the past year, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has raged on, while Israel has continued to bomb Gaza after waging war with Hamas in response to the terrorists who massacred 1,200 Israelis on October 7. Thousands have also been killed in crossfire amid a brutal civil war. war in Sudan.

Rescue workers respond to the scene of a rocket attack on a bank building on December 31, 2023 in Kharkiv, Ukraine

During his Sunday blessing, Francis also recalled the love and wisdom of his predecessor Pope Benedict on the anniversary of his death.

Benedict, the first pope to retire in six centuries, died last December 31 at the age of 95 in the Vatican monastery, where he was pope emeritus for 10 years.

He is buried in the caves beneath St. Peter's Basilica. At the end of his weekly afternoon blessing, Francis said the faithful felt “so much love, so much gratitude, so much admiration” for Benedict.

He praised the “love and wisdom” with which Benedict led the church and asked for applause from the pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter's Square.

Earlier in the day, Benedict's longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, celebrated a special Mass at the basilica and then took part in an anniversary event to reflect on Benedict's legacy.

Archbishop Gaenswein acknowledged some of the polemics surrounding Benedict's decade-long retirement alongside Francis in the Vatican, but said they would be forgotten in favor of the content of his ministry and his last words: “Lord, I love you.” ' History, Archbishop Gaenswein said, would judge Benedict as a “great theologian, a very simple person and a man of deep faith.”

Francis often praised Benedict's decision to retire as courageous and said he too could follow in his footsteps.

The Pope gave his blessing from a window overlooking St. Peter's Square in the Vatican and remembered 2023 as a year marked by war suffering

Smoke rises from residential area in Gaza, seen from Nahal Oz, as Israeli attacks continue in Nahal Oz

A man walks among the rubble after a Russian missile attack on December 31, 2023 in Kharkiv, Ukraine

But now that Benedict has died, Francis has reaffirmed that the papacy is generally a lifelong job, and a consensus has emerged that the unprecedented reality of two popes living side by side in the Vatican has created problems that should be addressed before a future pope makes a decision. step down.

Benedict, a well-known conservative theologian who spent a quarter century as head of Vatican doctrine, remained a point of reference for conservatives and traditionalists, who have only increased their criticism of Francis in the year since his death.

It appears that Francis now feels freer to impose his progressive vision of a reformed church, now that he is no longer under Benedict's shadow.

People displaced by the conflict in Sudan ride on the back of a truck driving along a road in Wad Madani, the capital of Al-Jazirah state

Archbishop Gaenswein, who exiled Francis to his native Germany shortly after his death, recalled that Benedict had expected death only a few months, perhaps a year, after his 2013 resignation.

Despite his longer-than-expected retirement, Benedict remained true to his promise to pray for the church and for his successor, he said.

“I pray that he will be a saint,” Archbishop Gaenswein said.

“I wish he were a saint, and I am confident he will be.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also praised Benedict as “a great man of history and a giant of reason, faith and the positive synthesis between the two.”

In a statement, she said his spiritual and intellectual legacy would live on even among nonbelievers because of its “profound social value” and ability to speak to people's minds and hearts.