Pope celebrates Christmas, remembers martyrs on feast of St. Stephen

Published: 2005-12-27

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his first Christmas as pope, warning of the "spiritual barrenness" of modern times and asking people to open their hearts to Jesus. The pope celebrated midnight Mass in a packed St. Peter's Basilica and delivered a Christmas Day blessing to the city of Rome and to the world -- "urbi et orbi." On Dec. 26, the feast of St. Stephen, he paid tribute to ancient and modern martyrs. After his Christmas blessing, broadcast to 68 countries, he gave multilingual greetings, saying in English: "May the birth of the Prince of Peace remind the world where its true happiness lies; and may your hearts be filled with hope and joy, for the Savior has been born for us." He said "Merry Christmas" in 33 languages, fewer than the 60 or so languages typically used by Pope John Paul II in his later years. Gone were many of the Slavic and African idioms employed by the late Polish pope.

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