Pope ushers in Christmas Eve
Pope John Paul II has celebrated Christmas Eve Mass against the backdrop of a possible war against Iraq – a war to which the Vatican is voicing increasing opposition.
In a packed St Peter’s Basilica last night decorated with red poinsettias, the Pope presided over Midnight Mass, ushering in one of the most joyous Christian holidays amid mounting tensions between Washington and Baghdad.
Hours before the Mass got under way, the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, headlined its Christmas editions: “Humanity can win the ‘battle’ of peace”.
“While the clouds of war lengthen, the minds and hearts of men in all continents are drawn to Christmas,” the newspaper wrote in a front-page article.
It was the latest in a chorus of Vatican voices coming out against a war in Iraq. Top Vatican officials have said a “preventive” war against Iraq had no legal justification and could spark an anti-Christian campaign in the Muslim world.
Despite the shadow cast by the spectre of war, Christmas festivities were well under way at the Vatican on Christmas Eve, with the traditional unveiling of the life-sized Nativity scene in St Peter’s Square, depicting the birth of Jesus in a Bethlehem manger.
Bagpipes played and children’s choirs sang on the warm winter’s night as visitors marveled at the creche and twinkling Croatian Christmas tree that stood tall next to the piazza’s obelisk.
After nightfall, the Pope went to his studio window above the piazza and lit a candle, a silent vigil for peace that has been a hallmark of his 24-year papacy.
He later emerged for Midnight Mass, looking a bit tired but resplendent in gold-trimmed white vestments. The 82-year-old Pope suffers from the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and has trouble walking.
As hymns rang out in the marble basilica, 12 children from nine countries and dressed in traditional costumes presented wreaths to the church altar as the pontiff looked on smiling.
In his homily, he recalled the image of the baby Jesus in the manger, saying he was “born for a humanity searching for freedom and peace”.
“It is a sign of hope for the whole human family a sign of peace for those suffering from conflicts of every kind a sign of freedom for the poor and oppressed a sign of mercy for those caught up in the vicious circle of sin a sign of love and consolation for those who feel lonely and abandoned,” he said.
Vatican officials have been increasingly speaking out against the prospect of war, drawing a sharp difference between a strike against Iraq and what Church officials had said was a “just war” against terrorism following the September 11 attacks.
Archbishop Renato Martino, the prefect of the Council for Justice and Peace and the Vatican’s former UN envoy, told reporters last week that a preventive war was a “war of aggression” and therefore not a “just war”.
On Monday, the Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, warned of the consequences a war on Iraq could ignite in the Islamic world.
“A type of anti-Christian, anti-Western crusade could be incited because some ignorant masses mix everything together,” he told the the Rome daily La Repubblica.
The Pope himself has recently decried all the conflicts engulfing the world, mentioning the “forgotten” wars but also the one between Israel and the Palestinians and its effects on the Holy Land.
This year, Palestinians were celebrating a sombre Christmas in Bethlehem following renewed occupation of the biblical city by Israeli troops.
