Christmas poses difficulties for underground priests
in China
-23rd December 2003
HONG KONG (CNS)
-- For many Catholics in China's underground church, Christmas
is always a time to test their ability to protect the priests
who preside at liturgical services that highlight the seasonal
celebration. Priests unaffiliated with the government-approved
church community said that one of their most difficult challenges
is to find a suitable place to celebrate Christmas Masses, reported
UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. In
some cases, priests perform some liturgical celebrations weeks
before Christmas in order to not draw attention to their work.
Of the four major Catholic feasts in China -- Christmas, Easter,
Pentecost, and the Assumption -- Christmas by far draws the
most people because most Catholic peasants are free from farming
at that time of year.
Vatican' Christmas Web page allows for e-mail messages
to pope
VATICAN CITY (CNS)
-- The Vatican's Internet office has opened a Christmas page
on the Vatican Web site, making it possible for computer users
to watch midnight Mass live or send Pope John Paul II a Christmas
greeting. English writers should send their greetings to the
pope at: john_paul_ii@vatican.va. By going to the Vatican homepage
-- www.vatican.va -- and clicking on the Christmas icon, the
baby Jesus' head, Web surfers can find an index with everything
from the pope's e-mail address to Christmas hymns performed
by the Sistine Choir or the choirs of the Pontifical Institute
for Sacred Music.
Christmas preparations should include time for silence,
pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS)
-- Christians should avoid suffocating Christmas in "noise
and confusion," and instead make time for quiet reflection
and spiritual preparation, Pope John Paul II said. The pope
made the remarks before his Sunday noon blessing Dec. 21, delivered
from his apartment window above St. Peter's Square. He appeared
in relatively good form a few days before presiding over Christmas
liturgies at the Vatican. The pope said that the final week
before Christmas was when most people put finishing touches
on the Christmas tree and creche, but more importantly it offered
a time to "prepare the soul" in order to experience
the event as a mystery of faith. He said Mary illustrates the
right approach to Christmas in the way that she showed humility,
silence, amazement and joy at the birth of Christ. "She
urges us above all to have humility, so that God can find space
in our hearts unclouded by pride and arrogance," he said.
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