Pope focuses on refugees on Christmas Eve
Christians around the world celebrated Christmas Eve on Sunday.
In Vatican City remarks, Pope Francis likened the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem to the migration of millions of people today who are forced to leave homelands for a better life and he expressed hope that no one will feel “there is no room for them on this Earth.”
Francis celebrated late evening Christmas vigil Mass in the splendor of St. Peter’s Basilica, telling the faithful that the “simple story” of Jesus’ birth in a manger changed “our history forever. Everything that night became a source of hope.”
Noting that Mary and Joseph arrived in a land “where there was no place for them,” Francis drew parallels to contemporary time.
“So many other footsteps are hidden in the footsteps of Joseph and Mary,” he said in his homily. “We see the tracks of entire families forced to set out in our own day. We see the tracks of millions of persons who do not choose to go away but, driven from their land, leave behind their dear ones.
“In many cases this departure is filled with hope, hope for the future; yet for many this departure can only have one name: survival,” the pope said.
Meanwhile, it was a subdued Christmas Eve in Bethlehem, the historic birthplace of Jesus, with spirits dampened by recent violence sparked by President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Crowds were thinner in the West Bank City than previous years. Although there was no violence Sunday, Palestinian officials scaled back the celebrations in protest.
Claire Degout, a tourist from France, said she would not allow Trump’s pronouncement, which has infuriated the Palestinians and drawn widespread international opposition, affect her decision to celebrate Christmas in the Holy Land.
“The decision of one man cannot affect all the Holy Land,” she said. “Jerusalem belongs to everybody, you know, and it will be always like that, whatever Trump says.”
Trump abandoned decades of U.S. policy on Dec. 6 by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and saying he would move the American Embassy to the holy city.
By midafternoon, hundreds of people had gathered in Manger Square near the city’s main Christmas for celebrations, greeted by bagpipe-playing young Palestinian marching bands and scout troops. Accompanying the decorations was a large banner protesting Trump’s Jerusalem declaration.
Bethlehem’s mayor, Anton Salman, said celebrations were toned down because of anger over Trump’s decision.
The Most Rev. Msgr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the apostolic administrator of Jerusalem, the top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land, crossed through an Israeli military checkpoint to enter Bethlehem from Jerusalem. His black limousine was escorted by a group of men on motorcycles, some of them wearing red Santa hats.