Pope calls for protection of life in New Year's message

Pope Francis called for the protection of life at New Year’s Day Mass on Wednesday, offering a seemingly anti-abortion message.

“Let us entrust this new year to Mary, Mother of God,” Francis said in his homily at Saint Peter’s Basilica. “May we learn, like her, to discover God’s greatness in the little things of life.”

“May we learn to care for every child born of a woman, above all by protecting, like Mary, the precious gift of life: life in the womb, the lives of children, the lives of the suffering, the poor, the elderly, the lonely and the dying,” he continued.

“I ask for a firm commitment to respect for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person may cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to the future,” Francis added.

The pope, who has spoken out more strongly against abortion in recent years, criticized Vice President Harris amid her presidential bid earlier this year for her policies on abortion. In the same statement, he also took aim at President-elect Trump’s immigration policies.

"Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who kills babies," Francis said in September, urging American Catholics to choose who they thought was the “lesser evil.”

The new year kicks off the Jubilee, a special year in the church in which Catholics make pilgrimages to Rome. The tradition occurs once every 25 years.

The Associated Press contributed.

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