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Pope’s sombre message in Christmas under shadow of war

Pope Francis arrives for the weekly general audience in Paul-VI hall at the Vatican on December 13, 2023. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)

Rome, Italy: Christians across the world celebrated Christmas Wednesday, with the mood darkened by wars and a massive Christmas morning attack on Ukraine by Russia and a plane crash in Kazakhstan.

With the war in Gaza also showing no signs of ending, Pope Francis was also expected to call for peace in the Middle East during his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) speech at midday in Rome.

Francis used his Christmas Eve mass at the Vatican to urge Christians to think of “the wars, of the machine-gunned children, of the bombs on schools or hospitals” after another year of raging conflicts.

But as he was speaking, Moscow launched scores of missiles and drones in an attempt to take out Ukraine’s ravaged energy grid.

“Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack,” President Zelensky said. “What could be more inhumane? More than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than 100 attack drones. The target is our energy system”.

Ukraine has been celebrating Christmas on December 25 since 2017, having previously held the feast like many other Orthodox countries on January 7.

‘We limited our joy’

An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet flying from the capital Baku to Grozny in Russia crashed on Wednesday in western Kazakhstan, officials said, with 25 survivors reported so far. The plane was carrying 67 people.

In the biblical birthplace of Jesus, the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, celebrations among its Palestinian population were muted.

Since the war in Gaza began, Bethlehem has done away with its giant Christmas tree and the elaborate decorations that normally draw throngs of tourists, settling for just a few festive lights.

“This year we limited our joy,” Bethlehem mayor Anton Salman told AFP.

Prayers, including at the Church of the Nativity’s famed midnight mass, were strictly of a religious nature.

The Latin patriarch, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, told a small crowd on Tuesday that he had just returned from Gaza, where he “saw everything destroyed, poverty, disaster”.

“But I also saw life — they don’t give up. So you should not give up either. Never.”

At 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. Other banners said “We want life, not death”, and “Stop the Gaza genocide now!”

Jerusalem resident Hisham Makhoul said spending Christmas in the holy city offered an “escape” from the Israel-Hamas war, which has raged for more than 14 months in the Gaza Strip.

“What we’re going through is very difficult and we can’t completely forget about it,” said Makhoul of the plight of Palestinians in the besieged territory.

Gaza and Syria

About 1,100 Christians live in Gaza, with hundreds gathering at a church there to pray for an end to the war.

“This Christmas carries the stench of death and destruction,” said George al-Sayegh, who for weeks has sought refuge in the 12th-century Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City.

In a message to Christians all over 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 areas of Damascus to protest the burning of a Christmas tree in a Syrian town, just over two weeks after Islamist-led rebels ousted president Bashar al-Assad.

“If we’re not allowed to live our Christian faith in our country, as we used to, then we don’t belong here anymore,” said a demonstrator who gave his name as George.

Santa tracker

In Germany, Christmas was also a grim affair for many families after a deadly attack at a market, prompting President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to issue a message of healing.

“Hatred and violence must not have the final word,” he said.

In Buenos Aires, a Christmas solidarity dinner for the homeless fed around three thousand people at a time when more than half of Argentina’s population is affected by poverty.

In the United States, where the annual tradition of “tracking” Santa Claus swung into action, a US Air Force general said there was no need to worry that recent mystery drone sightings might affect deliveries.

And in Paris, worshippers gathered at the Notre Dame cathedral for the first Christmas mass since its reopening following a devastating fire in 2019.