Pope John Paul II prayed at the Christmas eve mass on Saint Peter's Square for peace in the West Asia telling Christian communities there the church shared their anxiety over the region's destiny. “I think with concern of the holy places, and especially of the town of Bethlehem where sadly, because of the troubled political situation, the evocative rites of Christmas cannot be celebrated with their usual solemnity,” The pontiff said at the midnight mass.
“Tonight I would like the Christian communities in those places to feel that the whole church is very close to them,” He added. We share your anxiety for the destiny of the entire region of the Middle East.
At the same time, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem -- where Christ is believed to have been born 2000 years ago -- another mass was celebrated by the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, who is of Palestinian origin.
Palestinian authority President Yasser Arafat attended the service in Saint Catherine's church, as he has every year since the authority assumed control of Bethlehem in 1995.
But other ceremonies in the town, where fierce Israeli-Palestinian clashes have broken out in the past 12 weeks, were sharply scaled back by authorities in solidarity with victims of the Palestinian uprising they call the Intifada.
Since the Intifada began on September 28, more than 350 people have died in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Israel, mostly Palestinians.
Bureau Report