Several crucifixes painted on wood are displayed in a room on the ground floor of the Barberini Palace in Rome. In some of these 13th-century representations, Christ’s face appears anguished, with his head bowed, while others depict him triumphant and already in glory. These variations reflect the theological debates of early Christianity, which Pope Francis referenced during his first homily of 2025.

“Is Christ merely human, merely God, both, or one and then the other?” early Christians wondered before the major ecumenical councils between the 4th and 8th centuries established orthodoxy. Pope Francis revisited this orthodoxy January 1, speaking in St. Peter’s Basilica, where he had inaugurated the Jubilee Year 2025 eight days earlier.

“Christ Jesus, our Savior, born of woman, has flesh and blood. Coming from the bosom of the Father, he takes flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary,” the pope proclaimed in his homily during Mass on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. He also cautioned against the resurgence of certain heresies: “There is a temptation, which many people today find attractive, but can also mislead many Christians, to imagine or invent a God “in the abstract”, associated with some vague religious feeling or fleeting emotion. No. God is tangible, he is human, he was born of a woman; he has a face and a name, and calls us to have a relationship with him,” he emphasized.

Protecting life

The humanity of Christ calls humanity to “care for life,” the pope continued. God’s choice to incarnate as “a tiny, helpless child in need of his mother’s care, clothing and milk, caresses and love” obliges us to protect life from its beginning to its natural end, “from conception to natural death,” Francis stressed, implicitly reaffirming his strong opposition to abortion and euthanasia.

“Let us entrust this new year to Mary, Mother of God. 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 said. At the end of his homily, Francis directed attention to his message for the 58th World Day of Peace, also observed on January 1, 2025, and released by the Vatican on December 12, 2024.

Three concrete actions for 2025

In that message, the pope called for “three concrete actions” in 2025.

First, he called for the cancellation or forgiveness of external debt for vulnerable and impoverished nations, whose debt levels have skyrocketed since the COVID-19 pandemic. Pope Francis described this forgiveness not as an act of charity but of justice. He argued that rich, industrialized nations, being the largest polluters, owe an “ecological debt” to poorer countries and stressed that external debt has become a tool of control and exploitation.

Second, the pope called for the abolition of the death penalty “in all nations” in 2025. “This practice not only violates the inviolability of life but also annihilates human hope for forgiveness and renewal,” he wrote. Though he did not explicitly reference the United States, his statement comes shortly after Catholic President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 death row inmates on December 23, 2024, weeks before Donald Trump’s January 20, 2025, inauguration. Trump has promised to increase the number of death penalty executions.

Third, the pope proposed allocating a percentage of arms industry profits to combat world hunger. For months, Francis has expressed his outrage at the arms sector's unprecedented profits, which have reached record highs since the Cold War. In 2023, the revenue of the world’s top 100 defense companies rose by 4.2%, reaching approximately €600 billion, according to a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute published on December 2, 2024.

“I call for a firm commitment to promoting respect for the dignity of human life, from conception to natural death, so that everyone may cherish their own life and look to the future with hope,” the pope concluded on January 1 from the basilica. He then returned to the nearby Apostolic Palace for the Angelus.

At the window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, Francis began by wishing a Happy New Year to those gathered. “Today, on this first day of the year dedicated to peace, let us think of all mothers who rejoice in their hearts and those whose hearts are heavy with sorrow because their children have been taken by violence, pride, or hatred,” he said, repeating his prayers for Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, and Myanmar.