Why do we celebrate a Feast of the Holy Innocents? (continued from above)

On this day we are reminded, as well, that all lives are precious, and it is our responsibility to protect every life from the moment of conception to natural death.

Pope Francis stated in his 2016 address for the Feast of the Holy Innocents:

Christmas is … accompanied, whether we like it or not, by tears. The Evangelists did not disguise reality to make it more credible or attractive. They did not indulge in words that were comforting but unrelated to reality. For them, Christmas was not a flight to fantasy, a way of hiding from the challenges and injustices of their day. On the contrary, they relate the birth of the Son of God as an event fraught with tragedy and grief. Quoting the prophet Jeremiah, Matthew presents it in the bluntest of terms: “A voice is heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children” (2:18). It is the sobbing of mothers bewailing the death of their children in the face of Herod’s tyranny and unbridled thirst for power.
Today too, we hear this heart-rending cry of pain, which we neither desire nor are able to ignore or to silence. In our world – I write this with a heavy heart – we continue to hear the lamentation of so many mothers, of so many families, for the death of their children, their innocent children. (Letter of His Holiness Pope Francis to Bishops on the Feast of the Holy Innocents)

The Feast of the Holy Innocents is celebrated on December 28.