Sunday, December 26, 2004

Prayers for peace as Christmas celebrated around world

LONDON (AP) - Worshippers brought hopes for greater peace in the coming year as they flocked to Manger Square in Bethlehem and to St. Peter's in the Vatican to hear Christmas messages urging an end to violence, particularly in the Middle East.

But from Indonesia to Iraq, fear overshadowed the festivities.

Few worshippers dared attend services in Baghdad on Saturday, and tens of thousands of police stood guard at packed churches in Jakarta.

Gang violence cast a pall over Christmas in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, where suspected gang members wielding assault rifles boarded a public bus and killed 28 people two days earlier.

In a message left on the bus windshield, the gunmen promised more violence, saying: "People should take advantage of this Christmas because the next one will be worse.''

Families buried victims of the attack under sunny skies on Christmas day, as about 2,000 soldiers continued to search the slums and outskirts of San Pedro Sula for those responsible.

Authorities have arrested three people so far in connection with the attack.

Christmas in Haiti was subdued after another year of endemic poverty and political upheaval, including a three-week rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February.

In the capital of Port-au-Prince, many poor Haitians spent Christmas Day like any other: trying to eke out a living.

Christmas is no different from any other day. Jesus is with me, but I have to work to scrape by,'' said Marika Marie, 30, selling mangos and oranges on a roadside in suburban Petionville.

But festivities were lighthearted in other corners of the globes.

Australians in bikinis and Santa suits took their parties and Christmas barbecues to the beach.

And in London, Madrid and Paris, the streets were nearly empty as families stayed home for their traditional Christmas dinners.

Queen Elizabeth II urged religious and cultural tolerance in multicultural Britain in her traditional Christmas message, broadcast on television and radio.

"Religion and culture are much in the news these days, usually as sources of difference and conflict, rather than for bringing people together.

But the irony is that every religion has something to say about tolerance and respecting others,'' she said.

The queen also praised Britain's troops overseas. In the United States, U.S. President George W. Bush issued a Christmas message for his country's troops just days after an attack on a U.S. military mess hall in the Iraqi city of Mosul killed 14 U.S. service members as well as eight others.

"In Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere, these skilled and courageous Americans are fighting the enemies of freedom and protecting our country from danger,'' Bush said.

In Iraq, only a few Iraqi Christians showed up to celebrate Mass in Baghdad's churches on Saturday because of fears that Islamic militants could launch attacks to coincide with the holiday.

Churches were bombed in August, September and October, prompting many among Iraq's 700,000 Christians to flee to neighboring Jordan and Syria.

In Baghdad's predominantly Christian southeastern neighborhood of Karada, only about a dozen people showed up for morning Mass at the Notre Dame de la Deliverance Church.

Plainclothes guards armed with guns stood outside the church.

Representatives of rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr visited a church in the upscale Mansour neighborhood in a sign of solidarity with the Christian community.

In Indonesia, Christians celebrated Christmas under tight security amid warnings that terrorists linked to al-Qaida planned attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Soldiers with machine guns guarded Santa Anna Roman Catholic Church in East Jakarta as worshippers passed through metal detectors at the entrance.

"I miss the times when we could worship peacefully and safely,'' said Antonious Karnadi, a bank clerk who attended a mass.

At the Vatican, thousands - many cheering and waving flags - flocked to St. Peter's Square to hear Pope John Paul II's traditional "Urbi et Orbi, Latin for "to the city and to the world,'' message and holiday wishes in dozens of languages.

The pontiff, speaking haltingly, shared his fears about the violence in Iraq, Sudan and other hot spots, and expressed hope that peace-building efforts would bring a brighter future.

"Babe of Bethlehem, Prophet of peace, encourage attempts to promote dialogue and reconciliation.

Sustain the efforts to build peace, which hesitantly, yet not without hope, are being made to bring about a more tranquil present and future for so many of our brothers and sisters of the world,'' John Paul said.

Hundreds of worshippers marched through the streets of Beit Sahur village in the West Bank, holding candles and singing.

In Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, a new thaw in Israeli-Palestinian relations drew several thousand more pilgrims than last year as Israeli troops eased passage through checkpoints into the West Bank city.

Among those attending services was interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas - a change from previous years, when Israel prevented the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from attending out of fears that he would advocate violence.

Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the senior Roman Catholic official in the Holy Land, called on Israelis and Palestinians to put violence behind them.

"Our situation continues to be a situation of conflict, violence, insecurity, fear, military occupation, the wall of separation, of imprisoned cities and demolitions,'' he said at St. Catherine's Church adjacent Manger Square.

"Palestine and Israel must conquer the evil of violence ... and give birth to a new society of brothers and sisters in which no one controls the other, no one is occupied by the other, no one causes insecurity for the other, no one takes liberty from the other,'' he said.

Abbas, a Muslim, said: "We ask God and wish that all the religions in this country will live in peace and security. I hope next year will be much better than the previous ones.''

Spanish King Juan Carlos used his televised Christmas address to pay tribute to the victims of the March 11 train bombings.

The king said relatives of the 191 people who died in Spain's worst terrorist attack had his and his family's "deepest affection and understanding.''

In Chile, families savored the holiday, even as they grappled with the country's troubled past.

At the Santiago Cathedral, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz called on Chileans to reconcile and overcome the painful divisions of the past - especially under Gen. Augusto Pinochet, Chile's ailing former dictator who ran the country between 1973 and 1990.

Pinochet, who is recovering from a recent stroke, faces charges of abusing human rights.

"Our history tells ... us: Let us not fill our present time or our future with the painful - extremely painful - exclusions of the past,'' said Errazuriz.

In Puerto Rico, many kept up local Christmas traditions.

Ruby Ortiz, 31, who grew up in San Juan and lives in Albany, New York, said she returned home this year to show her son a Puerto Rican Christmas.

She and her friends spent Christmas Eve going door-to-door in the cobblestone streets of Old San Juan, singing and playing drums - an event called "parranda.'' - AP

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Prayers for peace as Christmas celebrated around world