Pope Francis opens the Christmas celebrations in Rome on Saturday with the traditional Christmas mass. After two years of corona restrictions, the mass on Christmas Eve (7.30 p.m.) in St. Peter’s Basilica should be reminiscent of celebrations from before the pandemic. But the war in the Ukraine has clouded the mood of the head of the Catholic Church; the Pope recently spoke of a “sad Christmas”.
It is expected that the 86-year-old will also repeatedly remind people of the suffering of the people in Ukraine during the Christmas services. In the Holy Land, believers celebrate the Christmas procession from Jerusalem to Bethlehem beforehand. The head of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, drove to the small West Bank town in a convoy of wagons. He then walks the last stretch to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, accompanied by a scout procession. In the city, which is revered as the birthplace of Jesus, he later also celebrates midnight mass.
