Christmas messages of peace and reconciliation

Despite the fact that he has just launched his own Twitter account, Pope Benedict the 16th reminded people to find room for God in their fast-paced lives filled with the latest technology. The Pontiff addressed the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics during Christmas Eve mass from St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican in Rome. The 85-year-old Pope also appealed for a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict and an end to the conflict in Syria. Nowhere was a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict more on people’s minds than here in St Catherine’s Church at the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was among those present. With the most recent outbreak of conflict in Gaza still fresh in the memory, the Patriarch of Jerusalem called for peace and reconciliation in his sermon at the site traditionally held to be the birthplace of Christ.