Christmas revellers around the world donned red and white Santa hats, offered food to the homeless and lit candles on Wednesday as Pope Francis kicked off the global holiday with a somber Mass at the Vatican.
In St. Peter's Basilica, Francis used his Christmas Eve Mass to urge Christians to think "about the wars, about children being machine-gunned, about bombs in schools or hospitals" as this year's Christmas is once again held under the shadow of Israel's war on Hamas and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. His remarks came just days after he condemned the "brutality" of Israeli strikes, prompting objections from Israeli diplomats. Francis is due to deliver his traditional Christmas blessing, Urbi et Orbi (To the city and the world), at midday on Wednesday, while celebrations are muted in the biblical birthplace of Jesus, the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem.
For the second year in a row, Bethlehem has forgone its giant Christmas tree and elaborate decorations that usually draw crowds of tourists, settling for just a few festive lights. “This year we have limited our joy,” Bethlehem Mayor Anton Salman told AFP. Prayers, including the famous midnight mass at the Church of the Nativity, will still be held in the presence of the Latin patriarch of the Catholic Church, but the celebrations will be of a more strictly religious nature. The patriarch, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, told a small crowd on Tuesday that he had just returned from Gaza, where “I saw everything destroyed, poverty, disaster.” “But I also saw life – they don’t give up. So you shouldn’t give up either. Never.”
In Manger Square, in the heart of the Palestinian city, a group of scouts held a parade that broke the silence. “Our children want to play and laugh,” read a sign carried by one of them, as his friends whistled and cheered.
Other banners read: “We want life, not death” and “Stop the genocide in Gaza now!” Jerusalem resident Hisham Makoul said spending Christmas in the holy city offered an “escape” from the Israel-Hamas war that has been raging in the Gaza Strip for more than 14 months. “What we are going through is very difficult and we cannot completely forget it,” Makoul said of the plight of Palestinians in the besieged territory.
Gaza and Syria
About 1,100 Christians live in the Gaza Strip, which Israel separates from the West Bank. Hundreds of Christians in Gaza gathered in a church to pray for an end to the war. “This Christmas brings the breath of death and destruction,” said George al-Sayeg, who has been seeking refuge for weeks in the 12th-century Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyry in Gaza City. “There is no joy, no festive spirit. We don’t even know who will survive until the next holiday.”
In a message to Christians around the world, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked them for supporting Israel’s fight against the “forces of evil.”
Elsewhere in the Middle East, hundreds of people took to the streets in Christian neighborhoods of Damascus to protest the burning of a Christmas tree in a Syrian city, just over two weeks after Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al-Assad. “If we are not allowed to live our Christian faith in our country as we used to, then we no longer belong to it,” said a protester who identified himself as Georges.
Santa Claus Around the World
In Germany, Christmas was also dark for many families after a deadly attack at a bazaar, prompting President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to issue a message of healing. “Hate and violence should not have the last word,” he said.
In the United States, where the annual tradition of “tracking” Santa Claus has come into play, a U.S. Air Force general said recent mysterious drone sightings could not affect gift deliveries. Gen. Gregory Guillot’s assurances came as the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the joint U.S.-Canadian military command, said Santa Claus and his reindeer were making stops in Asia, including Japan and North Korea. “Of course we are concerned about drones and everything else in the air,” NORAD Commander Guillot told Fox News. “But I don’t foresee any problems with drones for Santa this year.”
And in Paris, worshippers gathered at Notre Dame Cathedral for the first Christmas mass since it reopened after a devastating fire in 2019. “We arrived here early to attend the 4 p.m. mass and to find a good spot. It’s a magnificent monument,” said Julien Viol, a 40-year-old engineer who traveled to Paris from Switzerland with his two children. | BGNES
