Hundreds gathered on the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem within the West Bank because the chief of the Catholic Church within the Holy Land marked the second Christmas Midnight Mass beneath the shadow of the warfare in Gaza.
Hundreds of worshippers, each Palestinians and foreigners, attended the Midnight Mass on the Church of Nativity within the West Bank.
The common cheering was absent, and no Christmas tree or decorations coated the partitions of the Church, extensively revered because the birthplace of Jesus, because of the ongoing warfare in Gaza.
The Head of the Catholic Church within the Holy Land, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa was current on the church.
Before the mass, Israeli authorities allowed a uncommon Gaza go to by Cardinal Pizzaballa for the mass, to rejoice a pre-Christmas Mass with Gaza’s small Christian neighborhood, because the ever-present buzz of Israeli drones continued sounding exterior.
Speaking on the warfare, Pizzaballa mentioned “warfare is horrible with all the results of division, and we’re within the place the place divisions are very evident additionally from the structural perspective. To undergo, the which means is that it’s attainable even the place there are huge and tough partitions – it is attainable to simply go them if we would like.”
Pizzaballa continued saying “and we would like, particularly for this Christmas, we wish to inform our folks to not lose hope. It’s attainable additionally to interrupt down essentially the most tough wall, the hatred, the division, the contempt, and the shortage of justice and dignity that we’re experiencing right here.”
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem’s go to to Gaza got here as Pope Francis once more criticised Israel’s actions in its ongoing warfare.
Christmas time is normally certainly one of excessive tourism for the historic metropolis of Bethlehem. The yearly non secular celebration, shared amongst Armenian, Catholic and Orthodox denominations are normally main boons for town. More than two million vacationers and pilgrims normally go to the birthplace of Jesus, accounting for greater than 70% of town’s yearly earnings.
But this yr, the streets are empty and there are virtually no vacationers. The cardinal mentioned he hopes to see this reversed subsequent yr, and as soon as once more witness the Holy Land crowded with pilgrims, “the Church of the Holy Land, the Church of Jerusalem, with out pilgrims is just not full”.
“I’ve to say that Christmas in Bethlehem is at all times good, however this time is the second yr we’ve got a tragic Christmas in Bethlehem” mentioned Pizzaballa.
Reflecting a message of hope, Pizzaballa says he hopes to see the most important Christmas tree within the metropolis, and witness the festivities and cheering of this joyous interval, restored to the holy metropolis.
Echoing the identical message is Anton Salman, Mayor of Bethlehem. Salman says the message of town to the world is at all times certainly one of peace and hope. Salman says the world additionally should work to reciprocate that message on the Palestinian territories.
“The world should work to finish our struggling as Palestinian folks, to finish the occupation and to offer us our rights and to offer us the chance to realize our identification, our independence, our freedom, and to guard us from the risks that brought on by the continual of the Israeli occupation.”
Bethlehem is a vital heart within the historical past of Christianity, however Christians make up solely a small share of the roughly 14 million folks unfold throughout the Holy Land.
