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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

John Paul Ii Hails Jews On Christmas

Associated Press

In a joyous Christmas message to the world, Pope John Paul II hailed the Jews as the people who gave Jesus Christ to all mankind.

His gesture to the people he calls Christianity’s “elder brothers” during midnight Mass on Wednesday night carried a special resonance: It came the day after a Hanukkah candle was lighted at the Vatican for the first time.

“The birth of the Messiah! It is the central event in the history of humanity,” John Paul said in his homily at St. Peter’s Basilica. “The whole human race was awaiting it with a vague presentiment; the chosen people awaited with explicit awareness.”

The pope has done much to repair the ancient rifts between Roman Catholics and Jews.

Under him, the Vatican and Israel normalized relations in 1993. And this fall, he issued a major statement on anti-Semitism, part of his quest for an accounting of Catholic misdeeds as Christianity’s third millennium approaches.

In that statement, the pope said wrong interpretations of the New Testament fostered hostility toward Jews and deadened Christians’ responses to their persecution. The statement also stressed Christ’s Jewish heritage.

His Christmas homily echoed those thoughts.

“Israel, the people of God of the old covenant, was chosen to bring to the world … the Messiah, the Savior and Redeemer of all humanity,” the pontiff said.

As he slowly made his way to the ornate baroque canopy adorned with red poinsettias in the nave of St. Peter’s, the 77-year-old pope stopped to caress the head of an infant.

Outside the magnificent basilica, a huge Christmas tree towered in St. Peter’s Square near a softly illuminated nativity scene with life-size figures.

In his midnight homily, John Paul also spoke of the universal joy of Christmas.

“On this night the glory of God becomes the inheritance of all creation and, in particular, mankind,” he said, adding that “every man is included in the mystery of God’s love, which is the source of definitive peace.”

Quoting the words of Old Testament prophet Isaiah about the coming of a Messiah, the pope said that “in the divine light we can glimpse how the old covenant is being fulfilled and how, with Christ’s birth, a new and eternal covenant is being revealed.”