Pope Francis kicked off the 2025 Holy Year on Tuesday, inaugurating a celebration of the Catholic Church that is expected to draw some 32 million pilgrims to Rome in a test of the pope's stamina and the ability of the Eternal City to welcome them.

Pope Francis said the story of Jesus' birth as a poor carpenter's son should instil hope that all people can make an impact on the world, as the pontiff on Tuesday led the world's Roman Catholics into Christmas.

Pope Francis in his Christmas message called for talks between Ukraine and Russia to end the war that followed Moscow's full-scale invasion two years ago.

The Pope also addressed the war in Ukraine, calling for the “sound of arms to be silenced in war-torn Ukraine”

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis kicked off the 2025 Holy Year on Tuesday, inaugurating a celebration of the Catholic Church that is expected to draw some 32 million pilgrims to Rome in a test of the pope’s stamina and the ability of the Eternal City to welcome them.

In his traditional Christmas message on 25 December, Pope Francis mentioned the war in Ukraine, calling for an end to it and for negotiations for a just peace. Source: European Pravda Details: Pope Francis devoted two sentences of his Christmas message to the mention of Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine.

Pope Francis prayed that the Jubilee Year may become “a season of hope” and reconciliation in a world at war and suffering humanitarian crises as he opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve.

Pope Francis is expected to address the world's wars and conflicts in his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" message to the faithful spoken from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican at noon on Wednesday,

Pope Francis has opened the great Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica. The ceremony kicks off the 2025 Holy Year.

Pope Francis has told Vatican bureaucrats to stop speaking ill of one another, calling gossip "an evil that destroys social life."

Hope lives, Francis reminded the faithful on Christmas Eve, as he spoke of the blessed arrival of the Christ Child and the start of the Jubilee.