Pope shares Christmas message, marking start of the 2025 Holy Year for Catholics worldwide

Pope Francis delivered a plea for peace in a world torn by battle in his 2024 Christmas Day “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the Metropolis and the World”) handle. It got here as Christmas marked the beginning of the 2025 Holy 12 months celebration that’s anticipated to deliver some 32 million Catholic devoted to Rome.

“I invite each particular person, and all individuals of all nations … to turn out to be pilgrims of hope, to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions,” the pontiff stated, talking from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to a crowd of hundreds of individuals within the sq. under.

He urged negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to “obtain a simply and lasting peace” and finish the battle that has killed tens of hundreds since Moscow’s full-scale invasion greater than two years in the past. The battle didn’t pause for the vacation, as Russia carried out what it referred to as a “massive strike” targeting energy facilities in Ukraine on Christmas Day.

Pope Francis additionally renewed his name for a ceasefire within the Israel-Hamas war, calling  the humanitarian crisis in Gaza “extraordinarily grave,” and urged the discharge of the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Pilgrims lined up early Wednesday to stroll by the nice Holy Door on the entrance of St. Peter’s Basilica for Christmas observances. On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis knocked on the door and was the primary to enter by it, inaugurating the 2025 Jubilee that he devoted to hope.

Traversing the Holy Door is a technique that the devoted can receive indulgences, or forgiveness for sins throughout a Jubilee, a once-every-quarter-century custom that dates from 1300. 

Guests submitted to safety controls earlier than getting into the Holy Door, amid new safety fears following a lethal Christmas market attack in Germany. Many paused to the touch the door as they handed and made the signal of the cross upon getting into the basilica devoted to St. Peter, founding father of the Roman Catholic Church.

Inside, the great thing about a newly restored St. Peter’s Basilica was revealed after intensive restoration work was undertaken in preparation for the Jubilee 12 months.

Probably the most important restorations is of Bernini’s Baldachin, a cover that sits atop the tomb of St. Peter, eradicating centuries of grime to showcase its gleaming gold end. Additionally restored was the Chair of St. Peter, an necessary image of papal authority courting again to 875 AD.

CBS News correspondent Chis Livesay received an inside have a look at the restoration work at St. Peter’s, which you’ll watch within the video under.

Christmas and Hanukkah coincide, a uncommon incidence

Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day Competition of Lights, begins this yr on Christmas Day, which has solely occurred 4 occasions since 1900.

The calendar confluence has impressed some spiritual leaders to host interfaith gatherings, reminiscent of a a Chicanukah celebration hosted final week by a number of Jewish organizations in Houston, Texas, bringing collectively members of town’s Latino and Jewish communities for latkes, the standard potato pancake eaten on Hanukkah, topped with guacamole and salsa.

Whereas Hanukkah is meant as an upbeat, celebratory vacation, rabbis notice that it is happening this yr as wars rage in the Middle East and fears rise over widespread incidents of antisemitism. The vacations overlap sometimes as a result of the Jewish calendar relies on lunar cycles and isn’t in sync with the Gregorian calendar, which units Christmas on Dec. 25. The final time Hanukkah started on Christmas Day was in 2005.

Germany’s celebrations muted after market assault

German celebrations have been darkened by a car attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday that left 5 individuals lifeless, together with a 9-year-old boy, and 200 individuals injured. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier rewrote his recorded Christmas Day speech to deal with the assault, saying that “there may be grief, ache, horror and incomprehension over what came about in Magdeburg.” He urged Germans to “stand collectively” and that “hate and violence should not have the final phrase.”

A 50-year-old Saudi physician who had practiced medication in Germany since 2006 was arrested on suspicion of homicide, tried homicide and bodily hurt. The suspect’s X account describes him as a former Muslim and is stuffed with anti-Islamic themes. He criticized authorities for failing to fight “the Islamification of Germany” and voiced help for the anti-immigration Various for Germany (AfD) celebration.

CBS News’ Chris Livesay and the Reuters information company contributed reporting.