Frail Pope Prays For Peace
Peace to the world is the message of Christmas, but as CBS News Senior European Correspondent Tom Fenton reports, not everyone is listening.
In Rome, Pope John Paul II delivered his traditional message to Rome and the world at St. Peter's Basilica, which is being refurbished for the for beginning of the third millennium of Christianity. This Christmas, the 78-year-old pope is bent with age and crippled with infirmities. Many of those who heard his message must have wondered if he will be there next Christmas.
Increasingly frail, the pope had to lighten his schedule and cancel some appointments after contracting the flu and a fever on Dec. 18.
The pope offered a Christmas prayer Friday that people stand firm against violence and work to end weapons production, the death penalty and genocide.
After leading the faithful in a Christmas Eve midnight Mass, John Paul had a few hours to rest before appearing on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at noon Friday to deliver his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" message.
Before he read holiday greetings in 58 languages, including Samoan and Georgian, John Paul reflected on "the disturbing developments. . .coming each day from television and the newspapers, sweeping from one hemisphere to the other of the globe, tragic situations, which often involve human guilt and even malice, soaked in fraticidal hate and senseless violence."
The pontiff prayed that consensus be strengthened worldwide for "urgent and adequate measures to halt the production and sale of arms, to defend human life, to end the death penalty" and to "restrain the bloodied hand of those responsible for genocide and crimes of war."
The phrase "defend human life" usually refers to the Vatican's opposition to abortion and euthanasia.
To the East, in Bethlehem, Palestinian Christians and tourists celebrated Christmas in the town that is the traditional birthplace of Jesus. But although this is their first Christmas under local Palestinian rule, the prospects for real peace in the Holy Land next year look dim.
In a reference to shaky peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians, John Paul prayed for encouragement for those trying to help "the tormented situation in the Middle East by respecting international commitments."
Other parts of the world are in conflict this holiday season. A sad exodus of Kosovo Albanians, under attack by Serbian forces, left their homes on Christmas Eve and headed for the mountains. In the bitter winter, there is no shelter for these mothers and children -- a woeful sad echo of events two thousand years ago. These, however, are Muslims pursued by Christians.
If things get worse in Kosovo, as well they might, NATO is threatening air strikes against the Serbs. American pilots could once again be in combat.
On Dec. 24, 1999, the pope will launch Holy Year celebrations for 2000 with the symbolic opening o a basilica door that is sealed during all but church jubilee years.
"My thoughts already turn to Christmas next year, when, God willing, the church shall inaugurate the great jubilee with the opening of the holy door," John Paul said during midnight Mass.
The phrase was a slight change in wording from his prepared text. In the original, the pope said he himself would inaugurate the jubilee.