Pope Francis, leading the world's Roman Catholics into Christmas, said on Friday that people who are indifferent to the poor offend God, urging all to "look beyond all the lights and decorations" and remember the neediest, Reuters reported.
Francis, ushering in the ninth Christmas of his pontificate, celebrated a solemn vigil Mass in St. Peter's Basilica for about 2,000 people, with participation restricted by COVID-19 to about a fifth of the size of pre-pandemic years.
Minutes before the Christmas Eve Mass started, Italy reported a second successive record daily tally of COVID-19 cases, with new infections hitting 50,599.
Francis, wearing white vestments, wove his homily the around the theme that Jesus was born with nothing.
"Brothers and sisters, standing before the crib, we contemplate what is central, beyond all the lights and decorations, which are beautiful. We contemplate the child," he said in the homily of the Mass con-celebrated with more than 200 cardinals, bishops and priests. All but him wore masks.
Francis, who turned 85 last w...
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