Pope Leo XIV, during Angelus on Feast of Holy Family, calls for prayers for peace and families suffering from war, urging Christian homes to resist worldly illusions and shine as beacons of love.
Newsroom (29/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) On the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Pope Leo XIV delivered a poignant appeal for peace during the traditional Sunday Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square, emphasizing the need to intercede especially for families enduring the horrors of war.
Speaking on December 28 under the light of Christmas, the Pontiff urged the faithful gathered in the square and those following via media to persist in prayer for global peace. “In the light of the Lord’s Christmas, let us continue to pray for peace,” he said. “Today, in particular, let us pray for families suffering because of war, for children, the elderly, and the most vulnerable. Let us entrust ourselves together to the intercession of the Holy Family of Nazareth.”
The Pope’s reflection centered on the Gospel reading from Matthew, which recounts the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt to escape King Herod’s murderous intent. He portrayed Herod as “a cruel and bloodthirsty man” consumed by loneliness and paranoia over losing his throne. In Herod’s kingdom, Pope Leo noted, God was accomplishing “the greatest miracle in history,” fulfilling ancient promises of salvation—yet the tyrant remained blind to it, obscured by fear of losing power, riches, and privileges.
This “hardness of heart,” the Pope explained, only served to underscore the profound significance of the Holy Family’s presence and mission. Amid a “despotic and greedy world represented by the tyrant,” the humble home in Nazareth became “the birthplace and cradle of the only possible answer of salvation”: God’s gratuitous self-gift to humanity, offered without reserve or pretension.
Pope Leo drew a sharp contrast between the illusions of the world and the authentic witness of Christian families. “Unfortunately, the world always has its ‘Herods,’ its myths of success at any cost, of unscrupulous power, of empty and superficial well-being,” he warned, noting that society often pays dearly for these mirages in the form of “loneliness, despair, divisions and conflicts.”
He exhorted families not to allow such illusions “to suffocate the flame of love in Christian families.” Instead, he invited them to embrace Gospel values through prayer, frequent reception of the sacraments—particularly Confession and Communion—and the cultivation of “healthy affections, sincere dialogue, fidelity, and the simple and beautiful concreteness of everyday words and gestures.”
By living these realities, Christian families can become “a light of hope” and “a school of love and an instrument of salvation in God’s hands,” illuminating a society marked by isolation and discord.
Highlighting St. Joseph’s obedient response to the angel’s warning, Pope Leo described how the flame of domestic love grew stronger in exile, entrusted by God with bringing light to the entire world.
Concluding his address, the Pontiff invoked divine blessing on families everywhere: through the intercession of Mary and Joseph, may all families follow Christ’s example and become “for all an efficacious sign of His presence and His endless charity.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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