POPE CALLS FOR SPIRITUAL, NOT COMMERCIAL CHRISTMAS|教宗主持平安夜彌撒 感嘆物慾綁架耶誕

Moving onto our next story, we're sure that you must have enjoyed your Christmas weekend with friends and family. Now Christmas was originally a religious festival but people tend to agree that it has now become a predominantly commercial one. On Dec. 24 in his Christmas Eve address at the Vatican, Pope Francis reminded Catholics not to be blinded by the secular and not to forget the original meaning of Christmas. Pope Francis entered St. Peter's Cathedral at the Vatican and presided over the Christmas Eve Mass for the fourth time, with a congregation of 10,000. The Pope said that Christmas Day has been kidnapped by secular materialism, leaving God in the shadows, and people seduced by the world, so that they did not see the hungry, the refugees and the desperate war-torn people. Pope Francis called on believers not to forget the original meaning of Christmas, and especially to pay more attention to children. ==POPE FRANCIS== Let us allow ourselves to be challenged by the children of today's world, who are not lying in a cot caressed with the affection of a mother and father, but rather suffer the squalid mangers that devour dignity: hiding underground to escape bombardment, on the pavements of a large city, at the bottom of a boat overladen with immigrants. Let us allow ourselves to be challenged by the children who are not allowed to be born, by those who cry because no one satiates their hunger, by those who do have not toys in their hands, but rather weapons. Due to the attack in Berlin, and the fact that the suspect fled to Italy and was killed there, the authorities strengthened security around the Vatican. In the birthplace of Jesus, the holy city of Bethlehem, there was an influx of Christians from around the world on Christmas Eve with high security. Meanwhile, on the streets of South Korea where 30% of the population is Christian, on Dec. 24, there are a large number of people wearing red Christmas clothes demonstrated in the streets of Seoul on the ninth consecutive weekend demanding the resignation of President Park Heun-gye. TRANSLATED BY：CLARE LEAR 在莊嚴的聖樂中，教宗方濟各走進梵蒂岡聖伯多祿大教堂，第四次主持平安夜彌撒，現場約有一萬名教徒參加。教宗表示，現在的耶誕節已經被世俗的物質主義綁架，讓神退居陰影中，蒙蔽了世人，使他們對飢餓、移民和飽受戰亂蹂躪者的需求視若無睹。方濟各呼籲教徒勿忘初衷，特別要多關懷兒童。 ==羅馬天主教宗 方濟各== 讓我們容許自己 被那些未獲准出生的小孩 因不能填飽肚子而哭泣 與手上握著武器而非玩具 的兒童所激勵 今年因為德國柏林的耶誕市集遭受恐怖攻擊，嫌犯最後逃亡到義大利被擊斃，當局也特別加強梵蒂岡周邊的維安。而在耶穌誕生地，約旦河西岸的聖城伯利恆，照樣湧入世界各國的教徒，平安夜在溫暖的燈光與高規格安全戒備中度過。 全國有三成人口信奉基督教或新教的南韓，24號也有大批穿著紅色耶誕老人服裝的民眾出現在首爾街頭，這是他們連續第九個週末舉行要求總統朴槿惠下台的抗爭，平安夜的示威在激情之外，也多了幾分溫馨與希望。 記者 施慧中 報導