Wednesday 25 / December / 2024
Pope Francis has opened the Holy Door of St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, marking the official beginning of the Catholic Church's Jubilee 2025 year.
In a wheelchair due to a severe knee condition, the 88-year-old Francis knocked several times on the heavy bronze door, which helpers then opened from the inside.
He was then wheeled across the threshold as bells tolled across Rome and the choir inside the basilica began Christmas Eve Mass.
Every 25 years, the Catholic Church celebrates a special Holy Year known as a Jubilee.
During the year, the Catholic faithful can receive forgiveness for their sins through prayer and penance, including through a ritual that involves passing through the Holy Door.
Millions of people are expected to travel to Italy over the next 12 months for the pilgrimage.
Germany: Seven hurt in Christmas Eve care home blaze
Seven residents of a retirement home in southern Germany were injured in a fire on Christmas Eve.
A spokesman for the fire brigade stated on Tuesday that 60 people were evacuated from the historic building in central Munich.
More than 100 fire service personnel were deployed to tackle the blaze.
Details regarding the damage and the cause were not initially available.
The spokesman said that the roof and the bell tower of the building were severely damaged.
Some residents were moved to a different, unaffected area of the building as well as to a nearby building belonging to the Technical University of Munich.
Paris' Notre Dame holds first Christmas mass since fire
Thousands of worshippers will gather inside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris at midnight on Tuesday for the Christmas mass — the first since a major fire nearly destroyed the iconic structure in April 2019.
A Neopolitan nativity scene has been installed to help tell the story of Christmas.
The Paris diocese warned that only 2,700 worshippers would be allowed in for the service — one of several on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
The 12th-century monument reopened earlier this month after a five-year restoration program by France's government that cost some €700 million ($728 million).
Since the Cathedral fully reopened on 16 December, some 270,000 people have toured the site.
Christmas Eve church services were held in Syria's capital Damascus for the first since President Bashar Assad was overthrown.
The pews of Lady of Damascus Church were filled with Christian followers, holding candles and singing hymns.
The service was an early test of a pledge by Syria's new Islamist rulers to protect the rights of the country's religious minorities.
The country's de facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa has told visiting Western officials that his government won't seek revenge against Assad's followers or repress other minority groups.
However, several recent incidents have targeted Christians, including the burning of a Christmas tree, vandalism and a shooting at a Greek Orthodox church in Hama last week and the blasting of jihadi songs from vehicles in a predominantly Christian neighborhood.
In his Christmas message, Spain's King Felipe VI urged the public to draw lessons from this year's catastrophic floods.
The monarch said the disaster, which killed 231 people, was "an event difficult to accept, but from which we must all be able to draw the necessary lessons that strengthen us as a society and make us grow."
Thousands of people were made homeless in the October 29 floods.
"We have realized -— and understood -— the frustration, the pain, the impatience, the demands for a greater and more efficient coordination by the administrations," Felipe said in a reference to the public anger at the mismanagement of the disaster.
