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                                  VIS-Press releases   
      
   PRAYERS FOR VICTIMS OF MASSACRE AT COPTIC CHURCH IN EGYPT   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 2 JAN 2011 (VIS) - At midday today the Pope appeared at the   
   window of his study in the Apostolic Palace to pray the Angelus with thousands   
   of faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.   
      
   The Pope again expressed his felicitations for the new year, and thanked   
   everyone who had sent him "messages of spiritual support".   
      
   Commenting on today's reading, a reiteration of the prologue of the St. John's   
   Gospel as proclaimed on Christmas Day, the Pope highlighted how "this wondrous   
   text expresses, in the form of a hymn, the mystery of the Incarnation as   
   preached by the eye witnesses, the Apostles and in particular St. John whose   
   feast falls on 27 December".   
      
   Benedict XVI then addressed some remarks to thousands of people gathered in   
   Plaza de Colon in Madrid, Spain, who were following him on live television   
   linkup. They are celebrating, for the fourth consecutive year, the feast of the   
   family which has as its theme this year: "The Christian family. Hope for   
   Europe".   
      
   "I invite you", said Benedict XVI, "to be strong in love and humbly to   
   contemplate the mystery of Christmas, which continues to speak to our hearts   
   and becomes a school of family and fraternal life. The maternal gaze of the   
   Virgin Mary, the loving protection of St. Joseph and the sweet presence of the   
   Baby Jesus provide a clear image of how each Christian family should be: a true   
   shrine of fidelity, respect and understanding in which faith is transmitted,   
   hope fortified and charity enflamed. I encourage everyone to live their   
   Christian vocation with renewed enthusiasm in the home, as genuine servants of   
   the love which welcomes, accompanies and defends life. Make your houses true   
   seedbeds of virtue, and serene and luminous areas of trust in which, guided by   
   the grace of God, it is possible to discern the call of the Lord Who continues   
   to invite us to follow Him. With these feelings I fervently entrust the goals   
   and fruits of your meeting to the Holy Family, that joy, mutual commitment and   
   generosity may reign in a growing number of families".   
      
   After the Angelus prayer the Holy Father referred to "news of the serious   
   attack against the Coptic Christian community in Alexandria, Egypt. This vile   
   and murderous gesture, like that of placing bombs near the houses of Christians   
   in Iraq to force them to leave, offends God and all humankind, which only   
   yesterday prayed for peace and began a new year with hope. In the face of these   
   strategies of violence, which aim against Christians but have consequences on   
   the entire population, I pray for the victims and their relatives, and   
   encourage ecclesial communities to persevere in the faith and in the witness of   
   non-violence which comes to us from the Gospel. I think also of the many   
   pastoral workers killed in various parts of the world in the course of 2010.   
   For them too we equally express our affectionate remembrance before the Lord.   
   Let us remain united in Christ, our hope and our peace!"   
   ANG/VIS 20110103 (520)   
      
   SUMMARY   
      
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