Pope Francis says "Let's think of the Ukrainian people this Christmas: without light, without heating...and let us pray to the Lord to bring them peace..." and Meets with Ukrainian Family

After Pope Francis' Catechesis on Wednesday, December 21st, he met with a family from Ukraine whose father is a prisoner of war. 

Pope Francis said to the Audience:

Lastly, as usual, my thoughts go to the young, the sick, the elderly and the newly weds. May the birth of the Savior bring you all intimate comfort and give you the joy of feeling loved by the God who became a child.
And then, let us think - speaking of the Child Jesus - of the many children of Ukraine who suffer, suffer so much, from this war. On this feast of God becoming a child, let us think of Ukrainian children.

When I found them here, the majority cannot smile and when a child loses the ability to smile, it is serious. These children bear the tragedy of that war which is so inhuman, so harsh. Let's think of the Ukrainian people this Christmas: without light, without heating, without the main things to survive, and let us pray to the Lord to bring them peace as soon as possible. (Vatican.va)
I bless you from my heart.

Vatican News : At the conclusion of Wednesday's General Audience, Pope Francis greets a Ukrainian woman whose husband is a prisoner of war and their son, who came bearing gifts for the Pope, including a calendar showing the devastation of the Azovstal steelworks plant. By Vatican News staff writer The 2023 calendar Larissa and Sergheij gave Pope Francis on Wednesday morning contains terrifying images of the ravages of war in Ukraine. The mother and son, who spent some time with the Pope in the Paul VI Hall after the General Audience, are respectively the wife and son of a Ukrainian prisoner of war. The Pope took time to look at those terrible images, leafing through the calendar's pictures, one by one. They are images of destruction and sorrow, bearing stark witness to the tragedy of the population of Mariupol, the martyred city in the southeast of the country, for months besieged by the Russian army. Emblazoned with the word “Azovstal” in memory of the Ukrainian resistance inside the steelworks factory, the calendar also represents a token of hope that 2023 might be a year of peace for Ukraine. Larissa also handed the Pope a list of the names of Ukrainian prisoners, in the hope it may facilitate their release, or at least an improvement of their conditions in detention.