HOLIDAY HORROR: Pope Warns of 'Destruction and Desolation' for Mankind
Sure, there is a bit of a pervasive pessimism in the world these days, thanks in no small part to the mental health challenges that the globe has faced over the last two years.
A planetary pandemic, rising inflation, the doom and gloom of the climate crisis crowd – it’s no wonder the world is growing ever more worried about what life will look like in the not-so-distant future. The coming holiday season was seen by many as a potential reprieve from this horror show…but the Pope has different ideas.
At a Mass at the Vatican, the Pope, 85, said on Sunday that he has a dire vision for the world with ‘omens of even greater destruction and desolation’.
Advertisement - story continues belowThe Mass was commemorating the feast of Our Lady Guadalupe, which fell on Monday. It commemorates the appearance of the Virgin Mary to a young man, Saint Juan Diego, in 1531 in Mexico City. The day is a national holiday in Mexico.
But despite the current difficult times for the world – including wars, particularly Russia’s conflict in Ukraine, the rising cost of living, poverty, famine, and an international energy crisis – the Pope said he has a vision that things will get worse.
The Pope’s words were harrowing.
In his homily, the pontiff said ‘it is a bitter time, filled with the rumbling of war, growing injustice, famine, poverty and suffering,’ but at this ‘bleak and disconcerting’ time, there are ‘omens of even greater destruction and desolation’.
Advertisement - story continues belowHe added that at Christmas, God’s ‘divine love and his coming down to us tell us that this too is a propitious time of salvation, in which the Lord, through the Virgin Mother, continues to give us his Son’.
He urged the Vatican congregation ‘to get involved with each other without delay, to go out to meet our brothers and sisters who have been forgotten and discarded by our consumerist and indifferent societies’.
The only thing missing from the Pope’s epithet was a hearty “bah humbug” at the end.
