Bethlehem celebrates first Christmas in three years

Celebrations are resuming across the West Bank as a fragile truce holds in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of people are facing the winter in makeshift tents and remain in urgent need of basic assistance.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, recently returned from a visit to the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza—the enclave’s only Catholic parish, where he conveyed the closeness and solidarity of the Catholic Church—opened the Christmas celebrations in Jesus’ birthplace by making the traditional procession from Jerusalem to Bethlehem.

Upon his arrival in Manger Square, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem said he brought greetings from Gaza’s small Christian community, which, he noted, is animated by a strong desire to rebuild. He also expressed the hope for a Christmas marked by light.