Pope Francis urged peace in the Middle East at his Christmas address yesterday, in which he offered comfort to terrorism victims after a year of militant attacks.
The 80-year-old Argentine Pontiff called for guns to fall silent in Syria, saying that “far too much blood has been spilled” in the nearly six-year conflict which has also contributed to mass migration and homelessness.
And despite few signs of progress he urged Israelis and Palestinians to “have the courage and the determination to write a new page of history” in his message delivered from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.
A crowd of 40,000 gathered in the square below which, despite the sunny weather, was far from full.
Europe has ramped up security for the holiday just days after the truck attack that left 12 dead at a Berlin market.
Francis, leader of the world’s 1.2bn Catholics, said he hoped for “peace to those who have lost a person dear to them as a result of brutal acts of terrorism”.
In Milan, where the suspected Berlin attacker was killed in a police shootout on Friday, there was a heavy security presence around the cathedral.
The entrance has been protected by concrete barriers since the Berlin atrocity.
In France, where the killings in Germany evoked memories of the militant truck rampage in June that left 86 people dead in Nice, 91,000 members of the security forces have been deployed to guard public spaces including churches and markets over the weekend.
Religious ceremonies in Germany were heavy with the weight of Monday’s attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State (IS).
“Christmas this year carries a deep wound – we are celebrating this festival in a different way this year,” said Gebhard Fuerst, bishop of Rothenburg in the southeast.
In his mass, Pope Francis urged a 10,000-strong crowd to feel compassion for children, notably victims of war, migration and homelessness.
Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury who is the spiritual leader of the world’s Anglicans, said 2016 had left the world less stable.
“The end of 2016 finds us all in a different kind of world; one less predictable and certain, which feels more awash with fear and division,” he said in his sermon.
In The Netherlands, King Willem-Alexander called for national unity, pointing to unsettled politics, warning that the “extreme seems to have become the new normal”.
“The contradictions in the world have become bigger,” he said on national television.
In London, meat-lovers converged on Smithfield Market for the traditional Christmas Eve auction at butcher Harts, waving banknotes in the air as they bid for turkeys and rump steaks.
Elsewhere in the world, despite security fears, many were braving winter temperatures to take part in traditional celebrations.
Among them some 30 hardy Slovaks participated in a winter swim at Bratislava’s Zlate Piesky lake, some drinking beer in the nearly freezing water.
But in the world’s conflict-torn countries, there were reminders of the violence that has ravaged the world this year.
Christians in Syria’s Aleppo were preparing for services after President Bashar al-Assad’s forces retook full control of the ruined former economic hub.
The Old City’s Saint Elias Cathedral, its roof collapsed under rocket fire, was set to host its first mass in five years.
And in Bartalla, near the Iraqi city of Mosul, Christians filled the pews of the fire-scarred Mar Shimoni church for the first service since the town was retaken from IS militants who had seized it in 2014.
Pope Francis waves from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica during the traditional ‘Urbi et Orbi’ Christmas message to the city and the world yesterday.
