Pope Francis on Tuesday celebrated his first Christmas as leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics as he urged people to avoid pride and selfishness and open up their hearts to God and their fellow men.
Francis, who last March became the first non-European pope in 1,300 years, celebrated a sober Christmas Eve Mass for some 10,000 people in a packed St. Peter’s Basilica as hundreds of others watched on mega-screens in the square outside.
The great bells of the basilica sounded when the Sistine Chapel Choir intoned the Gloria, a prayer which starts with the words the Bible says angels sang on the night Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
Francis delivered a short sermon: Man can choose between darkness and light.
“… On the part of the people there are times of both light and darkness, fidelity and infidelity, obedience, and rebellion; times of being a pilgrim people and times of being a people adrift,” he said, speaking in Italian.
“In our personal history too, there are both bright and dark moments, lights and shadows. If we love God and our brothers and sisters, we walk in the light; but if our heart is closed, if we are dominated by pride, deceit, self-seeking, then darkness falls within us and around us,” he said.
