King Charles III used his annual Christmas message to make a plea for “compassion and reconciliation,” saying that in times of global uncertainty, people can find strength in diversity “to ensure that right triumphs over wrong.”
At a time when the United States has been alienating European leaders and pulling back from the post-World War II order, the British monarch urged nations to learn the lessons of the past.
The king said that while the war was “remembered by fewer and fewer of us,” the way “communities came together in the face of such great challenge carries a timeless message,” adding, “As we hear of division, both at home and abroad, they are the values of which we must never lose sight.”
Speaking from the 500-year-old Lady Chapel, which sits within Westminster Abbey in London, Charles used pilgrimage as a theme for his speech, through which he wove the Christian story of Jesus’ birth.
But the king, who is the head of the Church of England, also spoke of the “spiritual unity” of his historic meeting with Pope Leo at the Vatican in October and talked warmly of meeting people of non-Christian faiths.
“I find it enormously encouraging to hear how much we have in common — a shared longing for peace and a deep respect for all life,” he said.
The speech was Charles’s fourth Christmas message as king, continuing the tradition started by his great-grandfather, George V, as a radio broadcast in 1932.
While last year’s address focused on the medical workers who had helped treat him and his daughter-in-law, Catherine, Princess of Wales, after their cancer diagnoses, the king did not refer to his health in Thursday’s speech, a distinctly outward-looking message.
He voiced hope for “resilience in the face of adversity, peace through forgiveness, simply getting to know our neighbors and, by showing respect to one another, creating new friendships.”
Speaking at a time when Britain’s Labour government is trying to limit immigration and make it harder to claim asylum, the king said that through “the great diversity of our communities, we can find the strength to ensure that right triumphs over wrong.” He cited as examples both military veterans and humanitarian workers in conflict zones.
Video footage of a memorial held after the Bondi beach shooting in Australia was displayed as Charles praised people showing “spontaneous bravery, instinctively placing themselves in harm’s way to defend others.”
“It seems to me that we need to cherish the values of compassion and reconciliation,” the king added.
The speech came two months after he stripped his brother Andrew of his royal titles and honors over his ties to the convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. The disgraced former prince — now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — has been excluded from the family’s Christmas celebration, although his daughters attended with their husbands.
Earlier on Thursday, the king attended church on his private Sandringham estate with Queen Camilla, the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children, Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor’s daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, and other relatives as a large crowd of well-wishers looked on.
Charles ended his speech, which was followed by Ukrainian carol singers in traditional dress, by interpreting the story of Jesus’ birth as a “prayer for peace and reconciliation — for ‘doing to others as we would have them do to us.’” He added, “It is a prayer for our times, and our communities too, as we journey through our lives.”
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