Pope prays for lasting peace in Holy Land

POPE BENEDICT XVI made a New Year’s Day wish that people would work courageously for world peace, and especially for a lasting end to the Holy Land’s conflict, which he said has dragged on for too long.

The Pope, in his homily in St Peter’s Basilica during Mass yesterday, described peace as a “gift to invoke with prayer, a task to carry out with courage, without ever tiring”.

“How can one not turn one’s glance yet again to the dramatic situation which characterises the very land where Jesus was born?” the Pontiff said.