God wants all people to be saved; he forgives all who repent, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- God wants to save each and every person, and Christians are called to give witness to that fact by praying even for people who have harmed them, Pope Francis said.

Marking the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, the pope led the recitation of the Angelus prayer Dec. 26 with people gathered in St. Peter's Square.

The Acts of the Apostles recounts how, as he was being stoned to death, St. Stephen cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them."

The martyr's dying words are a testimony to the fact that God "has one great desire: that all people should be saved -- this is the desire in God's heart -- and that none should be lost," the pope said. "Stephen is a witness to the Father, our Father, who wants good and only good for each of his children, always."

God is a father "who excludes no one, who never tires of seeking them out and of welcoming them back when, after having strayed, they return to him repentant," he said.

"Remember this," the pope told people in the square: "God always forgives and God forgives everything."

The feast of St. Stephen, he said, is also a reminder to pray today for the "many men and women who are persecuted, at times up to death, because of the Gospel."

After the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis noted that Hanukkah had begun Dec. 25, and he wanted to publicly send "our Jewish brothers and sisters" his "best wishes for peace and brotherhood."

He also greeted Holy Year pilgrims who had come to St. Peter's Basilica to cross the threshold of the Holy Door, a pilgrimage that he said was "a sign that expresses the meaning of our lives: setting out to meet Jesus, who loves us."

Earlier in the day, he said, he had been at Rome's Rebibbia prison to open a Holy Door at the prison church, which he described as "a cathedral of suffering and hope."

Keeping with the biblical jubilee tradition of forgiving debts, Pope Francis also encouraged people to support the project of Caritas Internationalis "to give relief to countries oppressed by unsustainable debt" by signing their petition at www.turndebtintohope.caritas.org.

"The debt issue is linked to the issue of peace and the 'black market' in weapons," he said. "No more colonizing peoples with weapons! Let us work for disarmament, let us work against hunger, against disease, against child labor."

"And let us pray, please, for peace throughout the world," he said, "peace in the battered Ukraine, in Gaza, Israel, Myanmar, North Kivu and in so many countries that are at war."