Wearing a hearing aid, Francis looked frail after having been hit by a bad cold that obliged him on Sunday to recite his weekly Angelus address from his study in the Santa Marta guest house rather than the window of the Apostolic Palace. After the Holy Door was opened by Vatican ushers the pope was followed through the entrance by about 50 members of the congregation of 5000 who watched the ceremony inside St. Peter's. Some 20,000 people were gathered outside in St Peter's Square following the event on large television screens under cold and windy skies.

 

 Hope, the pope told the throng, "does not tolerate the indolence of being sedentary and the laziness of who has set himself up in a cushy sinecure, does not admit the false prudence of those who do not move themseles for fear of compromising the calculation of who thinks only of themself, it is incompatible with the quiet life of who does not raise his voice against evil and the injustices carrie out at the expense of the poorest." 

 

 Francis added in his homily that Christian hope "requires of us the audacity to anticipate today this promise, through our responsibility and our compassion." 

 

 "There are so many desolate situations in this world, we think of the wars, the children being machine gunned, the bombs on the schools and hospitals," Francis said, echoing his recent criticism of Israeli massacres of civilians in Gaza.

 

 jp