{"id":31022,"date":"2012-12-25T12:11:46","date_gmt":"2012-12-25T10:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=31022"},"modified":"2012-12-25T12:11:46","modified_gmt":"2012-12-25T10:11:46","slug":"christmas-daypope-benedict-xvi-celebrates-world-christmas-31022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/christmas-daypope-benedict-xvi-celebrates-world-christmas-31022\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Day:Pope Benedict XVI celebrates world Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pope<\/a>
Pope Benedict XVI (C) celebrates a late Christmas night holy mass at St. Peter's Basilica to mark the nativity of Jesus Christ, in Vatican City on December 24, 2012.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Pope\u00a0Benedict XVI \u00a0has marked Christmas with a Mass in the Vatican and asked if people still have room for children, the poor and God in their technology-driven lives.<\/h1>\n

The pontiff also prayed that Israelis and Palestinians live in peace and freedom, and asked the faithful to pray for strife-torn Syria as well as Lebanon and Iraq.<\/p>\n

The ceremony began at 10pm local time on Christmas Eve with the blare of trumpets, meant to symbolise Christian joy over the news of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

As midnight neared, church bells tolled throughout Rome, while inside the basilica, the voices of the Vatican boys’ choir resounded joyously.<\/p>\n

Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican traditionally began at midnight, but the start time was brought forward years ago to give the 85-year-old pontiff more time to rest before his Christmas Day speech.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This picture taken on December 24, 2012 shows the crib in St Peter's Square at the Vatican, at the end of the unveiling ceremony. Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate a late Christmas night holy mass at St. Peter's Basilica to mark the nativity of Jesus Christ.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A smiling Benedict, dressed in gold vestments, waved to applauding church-goers as he glided up the St Peter’s Basilica aisle toward the ornate main altar on a wheeled platform guided by white-gloved aides.<\/p>\n

In his homily, Benedict urged people to reflect upon what they find time for in their busy lives.<\/p>\n

He said: “The great moral question of our attitude toward the homeless, toward refugees and migrants takes on a deeper dimension. Do we really have room for God when he seeks to enter under our roof? Do we have time and space for him?<\/p>\n

“The faster we can move, the more efficient our time-saving appliances become, the less time we have.\u00a0 And God? The question of God never seems urgent.”<\/p>\n

\"VATICAN<\/a>
VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - DECEMBER 24: A general view of the St. Peter's Basilica during the Christmas night mass held by Pope Benedict XVI on December 24, 2012 in Vatican City, Vatican.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He continued: “Let us pray that Israelis and Palestinians be able to live their lives in the peace of the one God and in freedom.”<\/p>\n

Benedict also mentioned his hope for progress in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.<\/p>\n

Hours before the basilica Mass, Benedict lit a Christmas peace candle at his studio window overlooking St Peter’s Square to mark the end of a service for the unveiling of the Vatican’s crib.<\/p>\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pope Benedict XVI has marked Christmas with a Mass in the Vatican and asked if people still have room for children, the poor and God in their technology-driven lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":702,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,25,36047,80,63,17,1,118,34,14],"tags":[517,3900,42015,42010,42014,42017,42016,42013,3717,3719,42011,27967,42012,6003,35711],"class_list":["post-31022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-america","category-australia","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-europe","category-general","category-hot","category-latin-america","category-world","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-day","tag-christmas-god","tag-christmas-pope","tag-god","tag-god-pope-pope-benedict-xvi","tag-god-vatican","tag-mass-pope-benedict-xvi","tag-pope-benedict-xvi","tag-pope-benedict-xvi-christmas","tag-pope-benedict-xvi-clebrates-world-christmas","tag-pope-vatican","tag-the-pope-pope-benedict-xvi-has-marked-christmas","tag-vatican","tag-vatican-pope-benedict-xvi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/702"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31022\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}