VATICAN CITY — Pilgrims lined up early Wednesday morning to walk through the great Holy Door at the entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica, as Christmas began. 2025 Holy Year celebration is expected to bring some 32 million Catholic believers to Rome
Crossing the Holy Door is a way for the faithful to obtain indulgence or forgiveness of sins during the Jubilee, a definitive tradition for a quarter of a century dating back to 1300. On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis knocked on the door and was the first. to walk through it, dedicated to hope by inaugurating the 2025 Jubilee.
Pilgrims submitted to security checks before entering the Holy Gate, amid fresh security fears that followed Deadly Christmas market attack in Germany. Many paused to touch the door as they passed and made the sign of the cross as they entered the basilica of Saint Peter, founder of the Roman Catholic Church.
At noon, Francis will give the speech “Urbi et Orbi” – “To the city and the world”, which serves as a summary of the problems facing the world this year.
Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day Festival of Lightsthis year it starts on Christmas Day, Which has only happened four times since 1900.
The confluence of the calendar has prompted some religious leaders to organize interfaith gatherings, such as a Chicanukah party hosted by several Jewish organizations in Houston, Texas last week, bringing together members of the city’s Latino and Jewish communities to make latkes, the traditional potato pancake eaten on Hanukkah. , topped with guacamole and salsa.
Although Hanukkah is meant to be a festive and joyous celebration, rabbis say it’s happening this year as wars grow in the Middle East and fears spread. incidents of antisemitism. Holidays rarely overlap because the Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles and does not coincide with the Gregorian calendar, which places Christmas on December 25. The last time Hanukkah started on Christmas Day was in 2005.
Germany’s celebrations were overshadowed by a car attack at Magdeburg’s Christmas market on Friday, which left five dead, including a 9-year-old child, and 200 injured. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier rewrote a recorded Christmas Day speech to address the attack, saying there is “sorrow, pain, horror and incomprehensibility about what happened in Magdeburg”. He urged Germans to “stand together” and that “hate and violence must not be the last word”.
A 50-year-old Saudi doctor who practiced medicine in Germany since 2006 was arrested on charges of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm. Suspect X’s account describes him as an ex-Muslim and is full of anti-Islamic themes. He has criticized the authorities for not dealing with the “Islamization of Germany” and expressed his support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
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Barry reported from Milan. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem and David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany contributed to this report.
