'A huge relief': Joy returns to Jerusalem amid Christmas festivities

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00There was a large crowd of people aiming to get to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,

00:04one of the most important churches in all Christendom.

00:09So Jerusalem is dressed up in finery, and there is a festive feeling,

00:14which comes, I think, mostly as a huge relief.

00:18The last Christmas celebrated here was in 2022.

00:23Obviously, Christmas as a religious observance has always been celebrated,

00:27but there were no decorations, there were no public expressions of joy

00:32during the more than two years that the war was still really raging.

00:37And so slowly you do feel the sense of winter festivities and of joy returning,

00:45especially here.

00:47I'm just outside the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem,

00:51and everyone is gearing up for a long day in the churches,

00:55in this whole Christian quarter of Jerusalem.

00:58Everything remains, you know, now lit, I would say, but muted.

01:02And the Cardinal of Jerusalem, who we just saw on screen,

01:07Pierre-Baptiste Pizzabala, spoke very clearly a few days ago.

01:11We at France 24 spoke with him,

01:13and he described basically operating on two dual paths, open-eyed paths.

01:19He said we can't be in denial about the suffering

01:22and about the dangers that still exist,

01:24about attacks against Christian communities in the West Bank,

01:27which he mentioned specifically,

01:30a very bad period, and yet he said at the same time

01:34that he does feel filled with hope.

01:37Paradoxically, he said, of course, not the leadership,

01:40not the regional leadership, not any of it.

01:42He expressed something very close to disgust with regional leadership,

01:46but he said that the younger generation,

01:48those that seem to be getting up and acting

01:51and trying to rebuild their lives here,

01:54not just Christians,

01:56those are the ones who are filling him with hope.

01:59And that was reflected very much in his homily,

02:02the very, you know, traditional midnight mass in Bethlehem,

02:05which again, also, I think people were just elated

02:08to be able to return to that old tradition.

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