Pope Francis appeals for courage to better the world

Vatican City: Pope Francis said the story of Jesus’ birth as a poor carpenter’s son should instil hope that all people can make an impact on the world, as the pontiff led the world’s Roman Catholics into Christmas.

Francis, celebrating the 12th Christmas of his pontificate, presided at a solemn Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and opened the 2025 Catholic Holy Year, which the Vatican expects will bring some 32 million tourists to Rome next year.

In a sermon focused on the virtue of hope, which is also the theme of the Holy Year, the pontiff said hope “is a summons not to tarry, to be kept back by our old habits, or to wallow in mediocrity or laziness”.

“Hope calls us … to be upset with things that are wrong and to find the courage to change them,” he said.

A Catholic Holy Year, also known as a Jubilee, is considered a time of peace, forgiveness and pardon. It occurs every 25 years. Pilgrims coming to Rome during the year can obtain special indulgences, or remission of their sins. This Jubilee will run through to January 6, 2026.

At the beginning of the Christmas Eve ceremony, Francis oversaw the opening of a special bronze-panelled “Holy Door” at St Peter’s, only opened during Jubilee years. The Vatican expects up to 100,000 pilgrims to walk through the door each day next year.

At the papal Mass for an estimated 6000 people in St Peter’s Basilica and 25,000 more watching on screens in the square outside, the pope also repeated an earlier call for developed nations to use the Jubilee to reduce the debt burden faced by low-income countries.

“The Jubilee calls us to spiritual renewal and commits us to the transformation of our world,” said the pontiff. “A time of Jubilee for the poorer countries burdened beneath unfair debts; a time of Jubilee for all those who are in bondage to forms of slavery old and new.”