Ruth Sherlock
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
During the Mass, Pope Leo blessed the faithful.
In this first Christmas Day message, he highlighted the plight of those caught in war in Gaza and of refugees and the displaced.
He spoke of young people conscripted into militaries who, quote, "...on the front lines feel the senselessness of what is asked of them and the falsehoods that fill the pompous speeches of those who send them to their deaths."
He said peace is possible and urged people not to remain cold to people's suffering because, he said, when the fragility of others penetrates our hearts, when their pain shatters our rigid certainties, then peace has already begun.
The non-profit search and rescue group Sea Watch posts on X that a crowded wooden boat has disappeared into the Mediterranean Sea.
Alarm Phone, the volunteer organisation that runs an emergency hotline for migrants, says some 117 people were on board the boat that went missing after leaving Libyan shores for Europe on December 18th.
On December 21st, Alarm Phone says they were informed that a Tunisian fisherman had found a single survivor.
It's the latest tragedy on this dangerous route that people pay smugglers to take in the hope of finding a better life in Europe.
The International Organization for Migration says since 2014, over 33,220 migrants have gone missing, presumed dead, on this Mediterranean route.
And of course, with any storm in this area, burn scar areas are of concern.
So these are portions of land where because of wildfires, vegetation has been removed and the nature of the soil has changed.
And as a result, water isn't absorbed by that burned land as it usually might be.
And so that creates dangerous runoff conditions for the land below and makes those burn scar areas susceptible to debris flows.
What I actually found was that those were the parts of the brain that were least affected.
The non-profit search and rescue group Sea Watch posts on X that a crowded wooden boat has disappeared into the Mediterranean Sea.
Alarm Phone, the volunteer organisation that runs an emergency hotline for migrants, says some 117 people were on board the boat that went missing after leaving Libyan shores for Europe on December 18th.
On December 21st, Alarm Phone says they were informed that a Tunisian fisherman had found a single survivor.