Pope calls for nations to overcome divisions in Christmas address as communities celebrate worldwide

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis in his traditional Christmas message on Wednesday urged “all people of all nations” to find courage during this Holy Year “to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions” plaguing the world, from the Middle East to Ukraine, Africa to Asia.

The pontiff’s “Urbi et Orbi” — “To the City and the World” — address serves as a summary of the woes facing the world this year. As Christmas coincided with the start of the 2025 Holy Year celebration that he dedicated to hope, Francis called for broad reconciliation, “even (with) our enemies.”

“I invite every individual, and all people of all nations … to become pilgrims of hope,” the pope said from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to throngs of people below.

The pope invoked the Holy Door of St. Peter’s, which he opened on Christmas Eve to launch the 2025 Jubilee, as representing God’s mercy, which he said tears down walls of division and dispels hatred.

He called for arms to be silenced in war-torn Ukraine and in the Middle East, singling out Christian communities in Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as Lebanon and Syria. Francis repeated his calls for the release of hostages taken from Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

Pilgrims were lined up on Christmas Day to walk through the great Holy Door at the entrance of St. Peter’s as the Jubilee is expected to bring some 32 million Catholic faithful to Rome. Traversing the Holy Door is one way that the faithful can obtain indulgences, or forgiveness for sins during a Jubilee, a once-every-quarter-century tradition that dates from 1300.

“You feel so humble when you go through the door, that once you go through it is almost like a release, a release of emotions,″ said Blanca Martin, a pilgrim from San Diego. “You feel like now you are able to let go and put everything in the hands of God. See, I am getting emotional. It’s just a beautiful experience.”

Pilgrims submitted to security controls, amid new safety concerns following a deadly Christmas market attack in Germany.

A Chrismukkah miracle as Hanukkah and Christmas coincide

Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day Festival of Lights, begins this year on Christmas Day, which has only happened four times since 1900.

The calendar confluence has inspired some religious leaders to host interfaith gatherings, such as a Hanukkah party hosted last week by several Jewish organizations in Houston, Texas, bringing together members of the city’s Latino and Jewish communities for latkes, the traditional potato pancake eaten on Hanukkah, topped with guacamole and salsa.

While Hanukkah is intended as an upbeat, celebratory holiday, rabbis note that it’s taking place this year as wars rage in the Middle East and fears rise over widespread incidents of antisemitism. The holidays overlap infrequently because the Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles and is not in sync with the Gregorian calendar, which sets Christmas on Dec. 25.

The last time Hanukkah began on Christmas Day was in 2005.

Ukraine marks second Christmas at war

On the front lines of eastern Ukraine, soldiers spent another Christmas locked in grinding battles with Russian forces. It’s their second Christmas at war and away from home since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022.

A soldier with the call sign OREL, the Ukrainian commander of 211th battalion, said he had forgotten it was Christmas Day.

“Honestly, I remembered about this holiday only in the evening (after) someone wrote in the group that today is a holiday,” he said. “We have no holidays, no weekends. … I don’t know, I have no feelings, everything is plain, everything is gray, and my thoughts are only about how to preserve my personnel and how to stop the enemy.”

Others, however, said the day brought hope that there would one day be peace. Ukrainians expect the inauguration of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump may bring about a ceasefire deal, and many soldiers who have borne the brunt of nearly three years of fighting, said they hoped that would be the case.

“On such a day, today, I’d like to wish for all of this to be over, for everyone,” said Valerie, a Ukrainian soldier in the 24th Mechanized Brigade who would only give his first name. “Of course, there is always hope, there is always hope. Everyone wants peace, everyone wants peace and to return home.”

White Christmas in the U.S. Northeast

Residents of New York City awoke to their first white Christmas in Central Park since 2009, according to the National Weather Service New York. The 843-acre urban park recorded a snow depth of 1 inch at 7 a.m.

In Massachusetts, school children came up with names for a dozen hardworking snowplows, including “Taylor Drift,” “Control-Salt-Delete” and “It’s Snow Problem.” The Massachusetts Department of Transportation this week announced the winners of its competition to name the snowplows, which was open to elementary and middle school students. Other winning names included “Meltin’ John,” “Ice Ice Baby” and the “Abominable Plowman.”

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden spent part of Christmas Day calling each branch of the military stationed overseas to thank them for their service.

German celebrations muted by market attack

German celebrations were darkened by a car attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday that left five people dead, including a 9-year-old boy, and 200 people injured.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier rewrote his recorded Christmas Day speech to address the attack, saying that “there is grief, pain, horror and incomprehension over what took place in Magdeburg.” He urged Germans to stand together and said “hate and violence must not have the last word.”

A 50-year-old Saudi doctor who had practiced medicine in Germany since 2006 was arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm. The suspect’s X account describes him as a former Muslim and is filled with anti-Islamic themes.

Some Germans participated in joyful holiday traditions despite tough times. Members of the winter and ice swimming club Seehunde Berlin, or the Berlin Seals, waded into Oranke Lake wearing Santa hats as part of their annual Christmas Day swim. Meanwhile, rabbis gathered in town to watch the set-up of a giant Hanukkah menorah in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

Displaced Christians in Gaza pray for peace

An elderly Christian couple in the Gaza Strip has marked Christmas in a squalid tent camp, separated from their families and friends.

Amal Amouri and her husband, Tony Al-Masri, are members of Gaza’s tiny Christian community. While many of Gaza’s 1,000 or so Christians have sheltered in a Gaza City church throughout the war, the couple is among the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians who have fled to southern Gaza.

The tent camps in the Muwasi area barely have enough food or proper shelter. Al-Masri recently recovered from a stroke and walks with a cane.

Al-Masri said that before the war, his family would travel to the West Bank town of Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, to celebrate the Christmas. He said being separated from them was especially difficult.

“On days like these, I would be with my children in Bethlehem and with my grandchildren, sitting with all the family. We have been deprived of all of this,” he said. “This is the hardest thing for me. For two years I have not seen my children or grandchildren.”

His wife hung a wooden cross inside their tent, which has pictures of Christian leaders and Jesus and Virgin Mary as well as written prayers in every corner. “I only wish for peace,” she said.

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Barry reported from Milan. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; Rashid Yehya in Teleskaf, Iraq; Evgeniy Maloletka in the Donetsk region, Ukraine; Nick Perry in Boston; and David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed to this report.