Pope delivers annual Christmas message, urges nations to overcome divisions

The pope invoked the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, which he opened on Christmas Eve to launch the 2025 Jubilee, as representing God’s mercy, which “unties all knots; he breaks down all the walls of division; it dispels hatred and the spirit of vengeance.

He called for silencing the guns in war-torn Ukraine and the Middle East, targeting Christian communities in Israel and the Palestinian territories, “especially in Gaza where the humanitarian situation is extremely serious”, as well as in Lebanon and Syria “at present”. this most delicate period.

Francis reiterated his calls for the release of hostages kidnapped in Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

He cited a deadly measles outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the suffering of people in Myanmar forced to flee their homes because of the “ongoing clash of arms.” The Pope also thought of children suffering from war and hunger, of the elderly living in solitude, of those who flee their countries, who have lost their jobs and are persecuted for their faith.

Pilgrims lined up on Christmas Day to pass through the great Holy Door at the entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica, as the jubilee is expected to bring some 32 million Catholic faithful to Rome.

Passing through the Holy Door is a means by which the faithful can obtain indulgences or forgiveness of their sins during a jubilee, a quarter-century tradition that dates back to 1300.

Pilgrims underwent security checks before entering the Holy Door, amid renewed security fears following the deadly attack on Germany’s Christmas market. Many stopped to touch the door as they passed and made the sign of the cross as they entered the basilica dedicated to St. Peter, the founder of the Roman Catholic Church.

“You feel so humble when you walk through the door that once you walk through it, it’s almost like a release, a release of emotions,” said Blanca Martin, a pilgrim from San Diego. “…It’s almost like a release of emotions, you feel like now you’re able to let go and put everything in God’s hands. You see, I get emotional. It’s just a great experience.”

Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day festival of lights, begins this year on Christmas Day, which has occurred only four times since 1900.

The confluence of the calendar has inspired some religious leaders to organize interfaith gatherings, such as a Hanukkah party hosted last week by several Jewish organizations in Houston, Texas, bringing together members of the city’s Latino and Jewish communities for latkes , the traditional potato pancake eaten at Hanukkah. , topped with guacamole and salsa.

While Hanukkah is intended as a joyful and festive holiday, rabbis note that it will take place this year as wars rage in the Middle East and fears grow over widespread incidents of anti-Semitism. The holidays rarely overlap because the Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles and is not synchronized with the Gregorian calendar, which sets Christmas on December 25. The last time Hanukkah began on Christmas Day was in 2005.

Christians from the Nineveh Plains attended Christmas mass at Mar Georgis Church in central Telaskaf, Iraq, on Tuesday with concerns about their safety for the future. “We have the feeling that they are going to pull the rug out from under us at any moment. Our fate is unknown here,” said Bayda Nadhim, a resident of Telaskaf.

The Christians of Iraq, whose presence dates back almost to the time of Christ, belong to a certain number of rites and confessions. They once constituted a significant minority in Iraq, estimated at around 1.4 million people.

But the community has steadily declined since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and again in 2014, when the Islamic State militant group overran the region. The exact number of Christians remaining in Iraq is unclear, but is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands.

German celebrations were overshadowed on Friday by a car attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg which left five people dead, including a 9-year-old boy, and 200 injured. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier rewrote his recorded Christmas Day speech about the attack, saying “there is grief, pain, horror and incomprehension at what is happening.” ‘passed to Magdeburg’. He urged Germans to “stay united” and that “hate and violence must not have the last word.”

A 50-year-old Saudi doctor who had practiced medicine in Germany since 2006 was arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and assault. The suspect’s X account describes him as a former Muslim and is filled with anti-Islamic themes. He criticized the authorities for their failure to combat the “Islamization of Germany” and expressed support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

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Barry reported from Milan. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem, Rashid Yehya in Teleskaf, Iraq, and David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany contributed to this report.