Faithful mark Christmas Day across globe

[rodeodance]

Source: ap

Faithful mark Christmas Day across globe

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 31 minutes ago

ROME - As the faithful marked Christmas Day, political and religious leaders called for peace and reconciliation amid flickers of hope in places long plagued by conflict.


In Iraq, Christians made their way past checkpoints on Tuesday to fill Baghdad churches in numbers unthinkable a year ago. And in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, where tradition says Jesus was born, Christians celebrated in an atmosphere of hope raised by the renewal of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

For them, and for all those in the "tortured regions" of the world, Pope Benedict XVI prayed that political leaders would find "the wisdom and courage to seek and find humane, just and lasting solutions."

Benedict, delivering his Christmas Day address from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, urged the crowd to rejoice over the celebration of Christ's birth, which he hoped would bring consolation to all people "who live in the darkness of poverty, injustice and war."

In violence-ridden Baghdad, venturing out in large numbers late at night is still unthinkable, so the Iraqi capital's Christians celebrated Midnight Mass in the middle of the afternoon on Christmas Eve.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071226/ap_on_re_eu/world_christmas;_ylt=Ak.CQKwRb_7pd1op.xRitPms0NUE

[countmyvote4real]

1. Bless their hearts. n/t

[ClintonTyree]

2. Too bad the faithful...

seem to limit this "feel good" attitude to one day a year. The other 364 are devoted to thinking of ways to screw everyone else into the ground. Not all, mind you, but many.

If Joey Ratz was sincere about bringing "consolation to all people who live in the darkness of poverty, injustice and war", maybe he'd think about draining off some of the Vatican's multitudinous assets to alleviate these problems? :shrug: But I don't expect we'll see that happening too soon, will we?

[L0oniX]

3. Too much money being spent on pedophile court cases.