Urbi et orbi | The Pope calls for peace and asks to “silence the guns”

(Vatican City) Pope Francis called on Wednesday to “silence the guns” and “overcome divisions” in the world, while Christmas, celebrated by millions of Christians, is still darkened this year by wars in the Gaza Strip, Ukraine and other regions.

At the Vatican, the 88-year-old Argentine Jesuit invited people to keep “hope” while reviewing the main conflicts on the planet during his traditional blessing in the city and the world (“To the city of Rome and to the world”), from Sudan to Burma via Haiti, Cyprus and Mali.

Referring to the “extremely serious humanitarian situation” in Gaza, the leader of the 1.4 billion Catholics renewed his calls for a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages in the hands of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

The day before, he had opened the “Holy Year” 2025 of the Catholic Church, a major international pilgrimage for which more than 30 million faithful from all over the world are expected in Rome.

During the mass, he invited the faithful to think of “wars, machine-gunned children, bombs on schools or hospitals”, an allusion to the Israeli strikes on Gaza, the “cruelty” of which he denounced this week, sparking protests. protests from Israeli diplomacy.

In France, Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral has been hosting several Christmas masses since Tuesday.

Since the fire which devastated it in 2019, the cathedral had no longer hosted these Nativity masses celebrating, for Christians, the birth of Jesus.

“I'm so happy to come back here, it's so magical,” said Daniel James, a 46-year-old American steward, before attending Midnight Mass.

For the second year in a row, Ukraine celebrated Christmas on December 25 as in the West and no longer on January 7 – corresponding to December 25 of the old Julian calendar still followed by the Russian Orthodox Church for religious holidays.

But Russia launched more than 170 missiles and drones at the country's energy system on Wednesday, killing one person, an “inhumane” attack according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“The goal of this scandalous attack was to cut off the Ukrainian people’s access to heat and electricity during the winter,” outgoing American President Joe Biden lambasted Wednesday evening in a statement.

The pope, whose numerous calls for peace have gone unheeded since Moscow's invasion of the country in February 2022, called on leaders to have “the audacity to open the door to negotiation” with a view to a “just and lasting peace”.

Gloomy Christmas night also in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, the cradle of Christianity, where a few hundred faithful gathered in and around the Church of the Nativity.

“Smells of death”

Like last year, local authorities decided not to organize major celebrations.

“I want to thank our dear brothers and sisters in Gaza, whom I have just visited,” proclaimed the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who came to preside over Midnight Mass in Bethlehem, returning from Gaza. “They are a true sign of hope in the midst of the disaster and utter destruction that surrounds them.”

“For the second year, it’s a sad Christmas for you too,” the patriarch continued. “But next year, Christmas in Bethlehem will be full of trees, life and pilgrims.”

“What we are going through is very difficult and we cannot completely ignore it,” laments Hisham Makhoul, a resident of Jerusalem present in Bethlehem.

In the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Christians gathered at the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza City for Christmas Eve mass.

“This Christmas reeks of death and destruction,” says George Al-Sayegh, who found refuge for weeks to escape the bombs in the Greek Orthodox church of Saint-Porphyry.

“There is no joy, no spirit of celebration. We don't even know if we'll survive until next Christmas. »

The Hamas Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday 23 deaths in 24 hours in the small Palestinian territory ravaged by the war with Israel.

Hamas and Israel accused each other on Wednesday of blocking negotiations for an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza.

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In Germany, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called in his Christmas wishes for unity and cohesion, evoking the “shadow” cast over the holidays by the car-ramming attack which left five people dead and more than 200 injured Friday at the Christmas market in Magdeburg (North-East).

In Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad was overthrown on December 8, the new authorities dominated by Islamists have worked to reassure Christians in a predominantly Muslim country.

“It was not easy to come together in the current circumstances and to pray with joy, but thanks to God, we did it,” sighs to AFP Sarah who attends mass in the Syriac Orthodox cathedral of Saint-Georges, in Damascus.

For his last Christmas at the White House, Joe Biden expressed his hope that Americans “continue to seek the light of freedom and love, kindness and compassion, dignity and decency.” In a separate message, he also praised the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, saying “faith is the light of the Jews.”

In a different register, President-elect Donald Trump has multiplied provocative messages regarding Panama, Canada and Greenland.

In London, King Charles III paid tribute to the British medical staff who provided “support” and “comfort” to the royal family, after a year marked by the cancers of the monarch and his daughter-in-law Kate.

In Buenos Aires, a Christmas solidarity dinner helped feed around three thousand homeless people, while more than half of the Argentine population is affected by poverty.