Pope's prayer for children who are victims of violence

(Vatican Radio) Departing from his prepared remarks on Christmas Day, Pope Francis offered a heartfelt plea for “all those children who are killed and ill-treated.” He spoke passionately about the “infants killed in the womb, deprived of that generous love of their parents and then buried in the egoism of a culture that does not love life”; of the children “displaced due to war and persecution, abused and taken advantage of before our very eyes and our complicit silence”; of “infants massacred in bomb attacks” even in the place where the Son of God Himself was born.

“Their impotent silence cries out under the sword of so many Herods!” he said, recalling the slaughter of the innocents by Herod the King following the birth of Christ. “On their blood stands the shadow of contemporary Herods. Truly there are so many tears this Christmas, together with the tears of the Infant Jesus.”

Pope Francis prayed that Jesus might “save the vast numbers of children who are victims of violence, made objects of trade and trafficking, or forced to become soldiers; children, so many abused children.”