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BETHLEHEM, Dec 25 (AFP): West Christians around the world celebrated Christmas with prayers for peace Sunday amid fears of violence as pilgrims returned in droves to their saviour's birthplace.
Thousands of pilgrims descended on Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus Christ enjoyed its busiest Christmas of the new century while Pope Benedict XVI made an impassioned plea for peace in the Middle East, celebrating the first Christmas mass of his pontificate.
The holy land was "thirsting for peace", the top Roman Catholic official in Jerusalem said in his annual Christmas sermon in Bethlehem Sunday and urged political leaders to create life rather than death.
"God created you not to fear or to kill each other but to love each other, to build and to cooperate together," Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah told worshippers including Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, a Muslim, at the Church of the Nativity.
"To our political leaders, who by their policy can decide for the life or the death of so many in this land we say: Be builders of life, not of death. Our Holy Land thirsts to recover its peace and holiness," he said.
But Bethlehem governor Salah Tamari complained the town had been transformed into a "big prison" by the massive concrete barrier between Israel and the West Bank aimed at preventing terror attacks on Israelis.
Across the Mediterranean, Pope Benedict lit a candle for world peace at the window of his apartment as thousands of pilgrims gathered at the Vatican for the first midnight mass of his pontificate.
"On this night, when we look towards Bethlehem, let us pray in a special way for the birthplace of our Redeemer and for the men and women who live and suffer there," Benedict said in his homily at the traditional midnight mass in St Peter's basilica attended by thousands of faithful.
"We wish to pray for peace in the Holy Land. Look O Lord, upon this corner of the earth, your homeland, which is so very dear to you. Let your light shine upon it! Let it know peace!"
Thousands of invitations to the mass were snapped up several days ago and thousands of pilgrims unable to get into St Peter's basilica followed the mass on giant screens erected in the square. Around the world networks in 47 countries broadcast the mass live.
In the battle-scarred Iraqi capital, Baghdad, minority Christians celebrated the midnight mass several hours before dusk because of a night curfew and the danger of being out late at night.
Iraqi national television broadcast live part of the ceremony led by the patriach of Babylon and head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Emmanuel III Delly.
"I do not want to make a distinction between Christians and Muslims, we are all Iraqis. A car bomb kills without distinguishing between Christians and Muslims," Delly told AFP before the mass.
Christians account for about three percent of Iraq's population, but many have left the country in recent years, fearing the growth of Islamist militancy.
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