Last Updated on 3 years by INDIAN AWAAZ
AMN / VATICAN CITY
Pope Francis presided over morning Mass on New Year’s Day in Saint Peter’s Basilica with a smaller congregation present in accordance with pandemic health guidelines.
On the occasion Pope Francis issued a clarion call for an end to violence against women, saying it was insulting to God.
Francis wove his New Year’s homily around the themes of motherhood and women – saying it was they who kept together the threads of life – and used it to make one of his strongest calls yet for an end to violence against them.
“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.”
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”.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began nearly two years ago, Francis has several times spoken out against domestic violence, which has increased in many countries since lockdowns left many women trapped with their abusers.
Public participation at the Mass was lower than in some past years because of COVID restrictions. Italy, which surrounds Vatican City, reported coronavirus related cases on Friday and has recently imposed new measures such as an obligation to wear masks outdoors.