Pope Francis has issued a clarion call for an end to violence against women, saying it’s an insult to God.
Pope Francis made the pleas as he celebrated a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on the day the Roman Catholic Church marks both the solemnity of Holy Mary Mother of God as well as its annual World Day of Peace.
In his New Year message, the Pope made a strong plea for an end to violence against women.
“And since mothers bestow life, and women keep the world (together), let us all make greater efforts to promote mothers and to protect women,” Francis said.
“How much violence is directed against women! Enough! To hurt a woman is to insult God, who from a woman took on our humanity -not through an angel, not directly, but through a woman,” he said, in a reference to Jesus’ mother Mary.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began nearly two years ago, Francis has repeatedly spoken out against domestic violence, which has increased in many countries since lockdowns left many women trapped with their abusers.
During an Italian television programme last month, Francis told a woman who had been beaten by her ex-husband that men who commit violence against women engage in something that is “almost satanic”.
Saturday’s mass was the first time since 2019 that the Pope has delivered the New Year’s Day homily, as he missed last year’s address due to sciatica.
The 85-year-old Pontiff was marking what the Vatican calls World Peace Day, on which Popes have delivered addresses since 1968. January 1 is also the Catholic feast day of Mary the Mother of God.
In his Christmas address last week, the Pope reflected on the pandemic, the impact it has had on our social relationships and our recent “tendency to withdraw, to do it all by ourselves, to stop making an effort to encounter others and do things together.”
