Queen Elizabeth fears for the vulnerable in Christmas message

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2007

LONDON (AFP) — Queen Elizabeth II, in her annual Christmas Day message to Britain and the Commonwealth, on Tuesday urged people to take responsibility for vulnerable individuals excluded by modern society.

The sovereign, 81, said the modern world could be a distant, hostile place where it was all too easy for people to turn a blind eye to outsiders.

The birth of Jesus Christ was a tale of a family "which had been shut out," the queen said in the pre-recorded broadcast.

"The Christmas story also draws attention to all those people who are on the edge of society -- people who feel cut off and disadvantaged; people who, for one reason or another, are not able to enjoy the full benefits of living in a civilised and law-abiding community," she said.

"For...