Archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster address nation’s ‘uncertainty’ as pope describes differences as ‘a richness’

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Faith leaders in the UK have warned in their Christmas messages about uncertainty and division in the country.

Introducing a Christmas morning service from Lambeth Palace, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, said people may be feeling “unsettled” and wondering what the next 12 months would bring.

He also spoke of the plight of refugees, rough sleepers being “ignored by almost every passerby” and “those on the margins and those disregarded”.

Later, at a Eucharist service at Canterbury cathedral, Welby called for the language of love to replace the “languages of hatred, tribalism, rivalry, materialism, pride, greed, and so many more”.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster and the most senior Catholic in England and Wales, told a congregation at midnight mass on Christmas Eve that “we are in difficult times, times of uncertainty and an absence of consensus”.

Churches were providing help on food poverty and homelessness, he added, but more volunteers were needed.

“If, in the coming year, hardship increases, then we are ready to help in every way we can,” Nichols said.

In recent weeks, Welby has spoken of the need to “calm down the hatreds” over Brexit, and for reconciliation and restraint.

In one interview, he said it could take 10 years for the fractures to heal after the 2016 referendum “open[ed] so much bitterness”.

He repeated his view that, although he voted remain, the outcome of the referendum must be respected. Reconciliation takes time, he told ITV.

“It involves regret and repentance, it involves acknowledging where things went wrong, where you went wrong, where the other went wrong, it involves truth seeking, it is a process that is cautiously piled layer upon layer upon layer until you’ve built this bridge across the gap.”

When pressed on how long the process would take he said: “It depends on how people pursue it but 10 [years] would be good, to get to a point where we’ve put it behind us and it was no more than a painful memory.”

In Rome, Pope Francis described differences of faith, race and ideas as a richness, not a danger, and called for political solutions to end wars in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.

Addressing tens of thousands of tourists, pilgrims and Romans who flocked to St Peter’s Square, Francis, who turned 82 this month, said that without fraternity, “even our best plans and projects risk being soulless and empty”.

He called for that spirit among individuals of “every nation and culture” as well as among people “with different ideas, yet capable of respecting and listening to one another”.

“Our differences, then, are not a detriment or a danger; they are a source of richness,” Francis said.

He made his appeal as the trend toward nationalism, which has fuelled suspicion of migrants and refugees, has gained traction in much of Europe and the US.

In his Christmas Eve homily, the pope had attacked the “insatiable greed” of today’s consumerism, urging people to make “sharing and giving” more a part of their lives.

“Mankind became greedy and voracious,” the leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics said in an address to thousands of followers in St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

“In our day, for many people, life’s meaning is found in possessing, in having an excess of material objects.

“An insatiable greed marks all human history, even today, when, paradoxically, a few dine luxuriantly while all too many go without the daily bread needed to survive.”

The birth of Christ pointed to a new way to live “not by devouring and hoarding, but by sharing and giving”, he said. We “must not lose our footing or slide into worldliness and consumerism”, he said.

People should ask themselves: “Do I really need all these material objects and complicated recipes for living? Can I manage without all these unnecessary extras and live a life of greater simplicity?”

﻿As Francis presided over celebrations in Rome, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was in Iraq to celebrate Christmas with the Chaldean Catholic community, a clear sign of the pope’s solidarity.

Catholics are among the religious minorities devastated by Islamic State-inspired violence that has driven tens of thousands from their homes in Iraq.

Parolin met the Iraqi prime minister, Adel AbdulMahdi, on Monday in Baghdad.

The Vatican has for years expressed concern about the exodus of Christians from communities that have existed since the time of Jesus.

This year, Francis joined Orthodox leaders to decry what he called the “murderous indifference” of world powers to violence and suffering in the Middle East.