VATICAN CITY — Iraqi Christians celebrated a somber Christmas in a Baghdad cathedral stained with dried blood, while Pope Benedict XVI exhorted Chinese Catholics to stay loyal despite restrictions on them in a holiday address laced with worry for the world’s Christian minorities.
But joy seemed to prevail in Bethlehem, the West Bank town where Jesus was born, which bustled with its biggest crowd of pilgrims in years.
In northern Nigeria, attacks on two churches by Muslim sect members claimed six lives, and bombings in central Nigeria, a region plagued by Christian-Muslim violence, killed 32 people, officials said.
Eleven people, including a priest, were injured by a bombing during Christmas Mass in a police chapel in the Philippines, which has the largest Catholic population in Asia. The attack took place on Jolo island, a stronghold of al-Qaeda-linked militants.
The suffering of Christians around the world framed much of the pontiff’s traditional Christmas Day “Urbi et Orbi” message (Latin for “to the city and to the world”). Bundled up in an ermine-trimmed crimson cape against a chilly rain, he delivered his assessment from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Benedict’s exhortation to Catholics who have risked persecution in China highlighted a spike in tensions between Beijing and the Vatican over the Chinese government’s defiance of the pope’s authority to name bishops.
“May the birth of the savior strengthen the spirit of faith, patience and courage of the faithful of the church in mainland China, that they may not lose heart through the limitations imposed on their freedom of religion and conscience,” Benedict said.
Chinese church officials did not immediately comment late Saturday. A day earlier, one said the Vatican bears responsibility for restoring dialogue after criticizing leadership changes in China’s official church.
At Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad, bits of dried flesh and blood remained stuck on the ceiling, grim reminders of the Oct. 31 attack during Mass that killed 68 people. Black cassocks representing the two priests who perished in the al- Qaeda assault hung from a wall. Bullet holes pocked the walls of the church, now surrounded by concrete blast barriers.
Archbishop Matti Shaba Matouka told the 300 worshipers: “No matter how hard the storm blows, love will save us.”
After the October siege, about 1,000 Christian families fled to northern Iraq, according to U.N. estimates.
Christians make up about 2 percent of the population in the Middle East, compared with about 15 percent in 1950.
More than 100,000 pilgrims poured into Bethlehem since Christmas Eve, twice as many as last year, Israeli officials said, calling it the highest number of holiday visitors in a decade.
“(It’s) a really inspiring thing to be in the birthplace of Jesus at Christmas,” said Greg Reihardt, 49, of Loveland.
Visitors had to cross through a massive metal gate in the barrier Israel built between Jerusalem and the town during Palestinian attacks in the past decade.
