VATICAN-CHRISTMAS EVE
Pope celebrates Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has celebrated Christmas Eve with a late-night Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.
In his homily, Francis said the birth of Jesus Christ showed the patience, closeness and tenderness of God. The pope said that by becoming a human being, “God made himself small to better encounter us.” Francis said people should respond by asking, “Do I allow God to love me?”
Wednesday night’s Mass is followed by the pope’s traditional Christmas day message “to the city and to the world.”
Next week the 78-year-old pontiff will celebrate New Year’s Eve vespers and deliver his 2015 greetings a few hours later.
On Jan. 11, Francis will baptize infants in the Sistine Chapel and a day later board a plane for a weeklong trip to Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
Sound: (3:06 a.m. audio feed)
HOLY LAND-CHRISTMAS
Faithful flock to Bethlehem for Christmas
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Christian pilgrims from around the world have gathered in Bethlehem for Christmas celebrations at the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
On Christmas Eve, thousands of people crowded into Manger Square. Many attended Christmas Eve Mass at the Church of the Nativity, where they were urged to “pray and work for peace” in the Holy Land. The Mass was attended by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
The celebrations are bringing a lift to the Holy Land after a difficult year. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed last spring, and Israel battled Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip during a 50-day war over the summer.
Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal led a procession from his Jerusalem headquarters into Bethlehem, passing through the Israeli separation barrier that surrounds much of the town. He said he hopes 2015 will be better than “this difficult year.”
Sound: (3:06 a.m. audio feed)
IRAQ-CHRISTMAS
Christians celebrate Christmas in Iraqi Kurdistan
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Minority Christians, many of them driven from their homes by Islamic State militants, are celebrating Christmas in Iraqi Kurdistan.
At a Christmas Eve Mass in Irbil, they were assured that Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities are welcome in the Kurdish region.
A celebrant prayed, asking God to “realize reconciliation among the individuals and groups, and renew all our hearts and intentions so we live all in peace and joy.”
Meanwhile, refugees at a tent camp in a suburb or Irbil received a Christmas Eve phone call from Pope Francis, who said their makeshift conditions were similar to Jesus’ birthplace in a manger more than 2,000 years ago. The camp houses mostly Christian refugees forced to flee the onslaught by militants of the Islamic State.
In a letter to Mideast Christians penned earlier this week, Francis urged them to remain in the region and to help their Muslim neighbors present “a more authentic image of Islam” as a religion of peace.
Sound: (3:06 a.m. audio feed)
HOLIDAY HOMELESS
Cardinal visits homeless on Christmas Eve
BOSTON (AP) — The leader of Boston’s Roman Catholic archdiocese has maintained a holiday tradition of visiting the homeless on Christmas Eve.
Cardinal Sean O’Malley stopped to talk with guests and help serve meals at the city’s largest homeless shelter. He was joined for a time by Governor-elect Charlie Baker, who takes office on Jan. 7.
In his annual holiday message, O’Malley said Christmas is “the feast of God’s love for us,” and said people should share this joy and good news with others.
POPE-PHILADELPHIA-PREPARATIONS
On pope visit checklist: lots of communion wafers
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Pope Francis won’t be visiting Philadelphia until September, but planning in the City of Brotherly Love is already in high gear.
Organizers say they’re tackling issues large and small: from buying and storing millions of Mass booklets and communion wafers, to housing and transporting more than 1 million expected visitors.
The papal visit will come on the tail end of the weeklong World Meeting of Families, a conference organized by the Pontifical Council for Families every three years.
About 15,000 people from 153 countries are expected to attend that event. But officials expect more than a million to come see Francis at a closing festival and public Mass the following day. This will be the pope’s first trip to the U.S.
NATIVITY SCENE-MARRIAGE
Joseph proposes to Mary at Michigan Nativity scene
BLUMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Joseph has proposed marriage to Mary at a live Nativity scene in Michigan.
Joe Maurer and Kate Heinlein got engaged during a break from portraying the parents of Jesus. They were re-enacting the Nativity earlier this month for thousands of people at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Blumfield Township, near Saginaw.
Dressed as Joseph, Maurer dropped to one knee to propose to Heinlein. They were taking a break and warming up from being outside in the live Nativity scene. Their families watched the big moment.
The Saginaw News reports that Maurer and Heinlein met in 2013 while also cast as Joseph and Mary. He got her phone number and eventually asked her for a date. They now live separately in the Kalamazoo area and plan to get married next fall.
ORIGINAL ORGANIST
Church’s only organist retiring after 63 years
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The only organist in the 63-year history of a Lutheran church in northwestern Minnesota border is retiring.
Lorraine Olson has played at Grace Lutheran Church in Luverne, Minnesota, since two congregations decided to merge in 1951. Luverne is about 30 miles from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Olson has not called in sick once in her more than 4,000 Sunday mornings of work. She has worked with 14 pastors and 17 choir directors. She has played for more than 10,000 worship services, 1,000 funerals and 1,000 weddings.
The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports that Olson will play her final weekly service Sunday at 10 a.m.
SATANIC DISPLAY-ARREST
Satanic display at Florida Capitol damaged
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A 54-year-old woman has been charged with criminal mischief in Tuesday’s attack on a Satanic holiday display in Florida’s Capitol Rotunda.
Susan Hemeryck tried removing the display Tuesday, and when the Capitol Police told her she couldn’t, she began ripping it apart. Police then arrested her.
The display showed an angel falling into flames with the message “Happy Holidays from the Satanic Temple.” It was erected by an atheist group to counter a Nativity scene, which was taken down the day the Satanic Temple installed theirs.
Hemeryck said, “It’s just wrong when you remove baby Jesus two days before Christmas and put Satan in his place.”
Hemeryck said she was wearing a shirt that said “Catholic Warrior” when she arrived at the Capitol and decided she “needed to take a stand against Satan.”
MORMON RUSE ROBBERY
2 men get prison in Mormon ruse robbery in Vegas
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Two men who posed as religious missionaries to storm into a Las Vegas house have been sentenced to seven years to life in prison after being found guilty of kidnapping, armed robbery and other charges.
Abraham Austin Jr. and Robert Estall II were sentenced Tuesday, after a jury convicted them in September of charges also including conspiracy, armed burglary and battery.
The 29-year-old Austin and 26-year-old Estall used to serve in the Air Force together.
Prosecutors say they wore white shirts and black ties, pants and shoes of a style commonly worn by Mormon missionaries in the June 2013 home-invasion and beating of Terence Delucia. Delucia testified that about an ounce of marijuana and $3,000 was stolen.
Neither man spoke during sentencing by Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt.
