The traditional papal blessing, Urbi et Orbi, urged the Catholics to say "'no' to war, to every war and to do so with courage, to the very mindset of war, an aimless voyage, a defeat without victors, an inexcusable folly."
"To say 'no' to war means saying 'no' to weaponry … And how can we even speak of peace, when arms production, sales and trade are on the rise?" he said.
The pope insisted that people who desired not weapons but bread had no idea how much of the public money was being spent on arms. He lamented the "hypocrisy and concealment" surrounding weapon deals that allowed violence and killing to take place amid deafening silence.
"It should be talked about and written about, so as to bring to light the interests and the profits that move the puppet-strings of war," he added.
The pontiff said his heart grieved for the victims of the October 7 attack on Israel as well as for those killed in the Israeli military operation in Gaza. He called for humanitarian aid to flow to those in need and for a negotiated solution of the Palestinian statehood issue.
Pope Francis said his thoughts also went out to people in war-torn Syria and long-suffering Yemen and Lebanon. He called for peace in Ukraine and between Armenia and Azerbaijan, on the Korean Peninsula, in Africa’s troubled Sahel region and the Horn of Africa, in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan.
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), wished all the Christians who celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25 a merry Christmas and called for peace among nations.
"During these trying times, our common duty is to resist division and focus on praying to the Savior for peace among all peoples on earth ... I wish you strength and plenty of Godly assistance in your high service," he wrote in the message posted by the ROC's Moscow Patriarchate on its website.
The message was addressed to senior clerics around the globe, including Pope Francis, Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II of the Syrian Orthodox Church, Catholicos-Patriarch Mar Awa III of the Assyrian Church of the East, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi of the Maronite Church, and Baselios Marthoma Mathews III of Malankara Orthodox Church in India.