Italian state broadcaster RAI said on Thursday it has reached an agreement with cell phone operators TIM and Vodafone to broadcast the 84-year-old Pontiff's Midnight Mass from the Vatican on Dec. 24 as well as his Christmas Day message and blessing at 1100 GMT on Friday.
Particularly, the Pope expressed his deep love for the innocents who have suffered and sacrificed in the wars around the world. He lamented the millions of lives lost in his "beloved Africa"; the "torn fabric of mutual understanding" in Palestine; "terrorist violence that appears to be driving the whole world towards a future of fear and anguish"; and the situation in Iraq, "which has given rise to uncertainty and insecurity for all".
The Holy Father stressed that he "shares the deep pain which you and your people have experience in these last years," and urged the American bishops "to persevere joyfully in the ministry entrusted to you."
The scandal, John Paul II said, had given the Church in America "a providential call to conversion and deeper fidelity." The crisis, he added, gave the American bishops an opportunity for "to begin the new millennium by starting afresh from Christ."
