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

Pope celebrates with Mass, phone call to refugees

Pope Francis celebrates Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on Wednesday. (Associated Press)
Nicole Winfield Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis celebrated Christmas Eve with a late-night Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and a phone call to some Iraqi refugees forced to flee their homes by Muslim militants.

Francis told refugees at the tent camp in Ankawa, a suburb of Irbil in northern Iraq, that they were like Jesus, forced to flee because there was no place for them. For Christians, Christmas marks the birth of Jesus in a Bethlehem barn manger, chosen because there was no room for his parents at an inn.

“You’re like Jesus on this night, and I bless you and am close to you,” Francis told the Iraqis, according to the audio of the call provided by TV2000, the television of the Italian bishops’ conference, which arranged the hookup. “I embrace you all and wish for you a holy Christmas.”

The Ankawa 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, where Christian communities have existed for 2,000 years, and to help their fellow Muslim citizens present “a more authentic image of Islam” as a religion of peace.

During the Mass hours later in St. Peter’s, Francis echoed some of the themes he raised in the phone call as he reflected on the Nativity scene.

“How much the world needs tenderness today!” he said. “God’s patience, God’s closeness, God’s tenderness.”