Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon on Wednesday that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor and strangers today is tantamount to rejecting God himself.
Leo, who has made care for immigrants and the poor key themes of his early papacy, said Jesus' birth showed God's presence in every person as the pontiff led the world's 1.4 billion Catholics into Christmas at a Mass in St Peter's Basilica.
