--- description: Pope Francis delivered his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" Christmas day message from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica title: Read Pope Francis’ Christmas Day Prayer for Peace image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27b364f637314afb/6988b3f1cd1bba984670378e/pope-francis-christmas.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Pope Francis](/tag/pope-francis/) ## Pope Francis Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Read Pope Francis’ Christmas Day Prayer for Peace by [Mahita Gajanan](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Dec 25, 2016 5:53 PM CUT  Pope Francis Delivers his Christmas Urbi Et Orbi Blessing from St. Peter's Basilica on December 25, 2016 in Vatican City, Vatican. Pope Francis Delivers his Christmas Urbi Et Orbi Blessing from St. Peter's Basilica on December 25, 2016 in Vatican City, Vatican.Giulio Origlia—Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Dec 25, 2016 5:53 PM CUT [Pope Francis](http://time.com/4617782/pope-francis-christmas-peace-2016/ "undefined") delivered his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” [Christmas day message](http://time.com/4617782/pope-francis-christmas-peace-2016/ "undefined") from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Sunday. The Pope [dedicated his message](http://time.com/4617782/pope-francis-christmas-peace-2016/ "undefined") to “all peoples, especially those scarred by war and harsh conflicts that seem stronger than the yearning for peace.” He wished peace to the victims of the war in Syria and of “fundamentalist terrorism” in Nigeria, among several other parts of the world. Read the [full text of his speech](http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016/12/25/pope%5Ffrancis%5Fchristmas%5Fmessage%5Furbi%5Fet%5Forbi%5Ffull%5Ftext/1281611 "undefined") from the Vatican’s official translation to English from Italian below. Watch the Pope deliver the speech above. --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4617843/pope-francis-christmas-message/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4617843/pope-francis-christmas-message/"},"headline":"Read Pope Francis’ Christmas Day Prayer for Peace","datePublished":"2016-12-25T17:53:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:27:58.262Z","description":"He dedicated the message to \"all peoples, especially those scarred by war and harsh conflicts that seem stronger than the yearning for peace\"","url":"https://time.com/4617843/pope-francis-christmas-message/","keywords":["Pope Francis","Pope Francis topic","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27b364f637314afb/6988b3f1cd1bba984670378e/pope-francis-christmas.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27b364f637314afb/6988b3f1cd1bba984670378e/pope-francis-christmas.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pope Francis Delivers His Christmas Urbi Et Orbi Blessing","caption":"Pope Francis Delivers His Christmas Urbi Et Orbi Blessing","creditText":"Giulio Origlia—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/pope-francis/","name":"Pope Francis"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4617843/pope-francis-christmas-message/","name":"Read Pope Francis’ Christmas Day Prayer for Peace"}}]}] ```