Vatican City, Dec 25 (AFP/APP): Pope Francis ushered in Christmas celebrations for the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics on Tuesday, saying the celebration of Jesus’s birth reminded humanity how “God continues to love us all, even the worst of us”. The pontiff told crowds gathered at the Vatican for his Christmas Eve Mass: “You may have mistaken ideas, you may have made a complete mess of things, but the Lord continues to love you.” Thousands of Palestinians and foreigners converged in the biblical town of Bethlehem, revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. A few hundred worshippers gathered in the church on the site of Jesus’s birth for midnight mass, attended by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. Hundreds more gathered outside, watching on screens in the crisp air. At midnight bells rang out throughout the town, before Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the most senior Roman Catholic official in the Middle East, led hymns and said prayers. “At Christmas all the world looks to us, to Bethlehem,” he said. “Special greetings to our brothers and sisters in Gaza, with whom I celebrated Christmas two days ago,” he added. Pizzaballa, who had to cross Israel’s separation barrier to get … Continue reading Pope Francis kicks off Christmas celebrations with midnight Mass