Pope Benedict XVI said in his Christmas Day message Sunday that signs of hope in Iraq, the Holy Land and Lebanon need to be reinforced by actions on the ground.
"A united humanity will be able to confront the troubling problems of the present time: from the menace of terrorism to the humiliating poverty in which millions of human beings live, from the proliferation of weapons to the pandemics and the environmental destruction which threatens the future of our planet," he said, according to the AP.
In the Middle East, he prayed that God "grant courage to people of good will in the Holy Land, in Iraq, in Lebanon, where signs of hope, which are not lacking, need to be confirmed by actions inspired by fairness and wisdom."
