Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men

Filled with the anticipation of a new millennium, thousands of Christian pilgrims and Palestinian families flocked to the traditional birthplace of Jesus and heard calls for tolerance and peace as they witnessed the dawn of Christmas early Saturday.

With their Palestinian hosts eager to bask in a worldwide spotlight and promote a political cause, Catholic priests led a multilingual midnight Mass at the 4th century Church of the Nativity, which sits on the site where Mary is said to have given birth to Jesus.

“For our Holy Land and for the whole region, we wish and pray that the peace that has begun will find a just conclusion for all, Palestinians and Israelis,” Michel Sabbah, the senior Catholic prelate in this region, said from the church’s pale marble altar.

Throughout a day of celebration in one of the Holy Land’s most revered cities--a day that began with an overgrown street party and ended with sacred rites--security was tight but fears of serious incidents were unrealized.

Police sharpshooters watched from the church steeples that overlooked Manger Square while Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat shared center stage with a smattering of world leaders and choirs from three continents.

Calls to Muslim prayer on this Ramadan Friday mingled with the frequent tolling of church bells and a Palestinian bagpipe band playing carols. White lights sparkled from the trees ringing the square, and a huge “Merry Christmas” sign hung from City Hall, next to the main mosque.

And so, with the elaborate marking of another Christmas here where it all began more or less 2,000 years ago, the Palestinians have eagerly embraced the millennium as a chance to win tourist dollars, gain recognition for the aspiring Palestinian state and prove that they can manage a yearlong international event safely.

Proudly showing off a $200-million face lift given this Palestinian-controlled city during the last year, Bethlehem officials pronounced the Christmas festivities a success. The size of the crowds appeared to indicate that recent warnings of terrorism targeting Americans were not enough to keep people away. An estimated 3,000 police officers were deployed in the town of 35,000.

“As much security as they have here, all these police and the checkpoints, 1/8safety 3/8 is the last thing we have to worry about,” said Francis Colligan, 52, a native of Santa Monica, who was visiting the Church of the Nativity with his children and girlfriend.

The Palestinians hope to focus the world’s spotlight on Bethlehem and other Christian sites under Palestinian control as a way to promote their own cause of national statehood. Christmas Eve is but one part of a crowded schedule of festivities for 2000.

Arafat and the Palestinian Authority clearly are seizing with gusto the chance to upstage Israel as eager hosts to Christian ceremonies that will anchor millennium celebrations.

In contrast to the Palestinian enthusiasm, many Israelis appear ambivalent about the prospect of huge numbers of Christian pilgrims descending on the Jewish state for end-of-the-year visits. This ranges from indifference among secular Jews who are unfamiliar with Christian traditions to a belief among some religious Jews that Christians are determined to convert Jews.

While Arafat was sending out invitations to world leaders to celebrate this Christmas and January’s Orthodox Christmas, the Jerusalem chief rabbinate was ordering stiff restrictions on any celebration of Christmas or New Year’s, both of which begin during the Jewish Sabbath.

Meanwhile, in Vatican City, Pope John Paul II opened the Holy Door to St. Peter’s Basilica to launch a yearlong Roman Catholic celebration marking roughly 2,000 years since Jesus Christ’s birth--an event, he said, that had “changed the course of human events.”

“This is the gate of the Lord,” the pope chanted in Latin as he approached the towering bronze doors on unsteady feet and was helped up three steps by a pair of aides. A chorus replied, “The just will pass through it.”

Two maintenance workers inside the packed, darkened basilica muscled the doors to swing inward at the pope’s touch--a symbolic opening that, in 500-year-old church tradition, beckons sinners to pass through Christ to a reconciliation with God.

For years, John Paul had struggled against infirmity to reach this milestone--the start of Holy Year observances choreographed to put his own Christian humanist stamp on the next millennium. As the doors parted before him 34 minutes before midnight, he knelt at the threshold in silent prayer.

At that moment, the lights came on in Catholicism’s holiest shrine, kicking off a colorful ceremony involving worshipers from all continents--Africans blowing elephant-tusk horns, Asians bearing flowers, Europeans and Americans holding lamps.

The stooped, 79-year-old pontiff led a procession of cardinals, bishops and priests through the Holy Door, followed by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and other VIPs. Then he proclaimed the 54-week Holy Year open and said midnight Mass.

An estimated 1.5 billion viewers watched a live telecast in 58 countries--including Cuba, where Communist authorities banned public celebrations of Christmas until two years ago. Italy’s RAI network aired the same TV footage in real time on the Web.

The Vatican admitted 8,200 worshipers into the basilica and turned away 54,000 more who had sought tickets. It set up 40,000 chairs and four giant screens in St. Peter’s Square so others could follow the Mass on a cool, cloudy night outside.

Tens of thousands more spectators stood in the brightly lighted square, joining in the applause as the Holy Door swung open.

Popes have decreed Holy Years, or Jubilees, 26 times since 1300, and they have opened the Holy Door in Holy Years since 1500. This time, as in the past, Catholics are being called to a period of penitence, forgiveness, reconciliation, hope and justice.

But John Paul, already the most visible religious leader of all time, has seized the countdown to 2000 to push a pacifist, humanist agenda on the world stage and boost his authority within the church. The Polish pontiff says he has believed since his election 21 years ago that he was chosen to lead the world’s 1 billion Catholics into the next millennium.

Vatican watchers speculate that frail health prompted the pope to depart from a tradition in which popes have opened the Holy Door by first using a gilded silver hammer to break through the brick wall enclosing it. This time, workers tore down the wall in advance.

The door had been sealed after the last Holy Year, in 1983. It will remain open until the current celebrations end with the Feast of Epiphany on Jan. 6, 2001.

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Wilkinson reported from Bethlehem, Boudreaux from Vatican City.