Pope Francis kicked off the new year on Friday with a traditional Angelus blessing from the papal library, which pushed through nerve pain that forced him to skip New Year’s ceremonies in St. Peter’s Basilica.
The pope appeared relaxed as he stood at a pulpit in the Apostolic Palace, wishing the believers a video of a year of peace, a year of hope. He smiles into the camera as he repeats his usual note: “do not forget to pray for me” and wishes everyone a good lunch.
Two people stand in an empty St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican while Pope Francis recites the Angelus afternoon prayer in his studio on Friday, January 1, 2021. (AP Photo / Alessandra Tarantino)
The papal blessing was moved from the ordinary perch at a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square to discourage the crowd as Italy lives this holiday season under stricter COVID-19 restrictions.
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The Vatican announced on Thursday that the pope will not preside over a New Year’s Eve prayer service or the New Year’s Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica due to ‘painful sciatica’.
Francis has spoken openly about his sciatica in the past. It is a form of pain in the lower abdomen caused by compression or irritation on nerve roots or on the nervous system, which runs from the lower spine to the thigh.
After the Angelus, the pope called for peace in Yemen, where children live “without education, without medicine, hunger”, and around Rev. Moses Chikwe, a bishop in the Owerri Archdiocese of Nigeria, to be released. was abducted last Sunday by gunmen.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, center, marches to celebrate a new annual Mass in the St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Friday 1 January 2021. (AP Photo / Alessandra Tarantino, swimming pool)
In his Angelus blessing, the pope said “the pandemic has taught us how much it takes to be interested in others’ problems and share their concerns.”
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In a similar vein, in a homily prepared by the pope but read by his secretary of state earlier Saturday, Francis wrote that a “vaccination for the heart” was needed. This vaccine is the remedy. years if we look after others. ‘
He said peace could happen if everyone everywhere ‘needed a comforting word, a tender gesture’, and “if we start taking in peace with ourselves and with those around us.”