THE Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, used his Christmas sermon to attack the way that Bethlehem has been treated.

He described it as a town “corralled” and “blocked in” by checkpoints, with the economy decimated by the security measures taken by Israel in its own fight against terror. Pleading for the soul of Bethlehem, the Cardinal said: “The Christ Child is crying for the town of his birth.” Using imagery of the Crucifixion of Christ to argue that conflict in the Holy Land had inflicted a terrible wound on humanity, he said: “I want tonight to issue a plea. Violence is not the answer. Terror and repression are not the way of the Christ Child. To those with power, I want to say, ‘Seek peace with justice’.”

The Cardinal was preaching at Westminster Cathedral at the traditional midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

Hours later, the Pope in Rome echoed his words, pleading also for peace in the Holy Land in a Christmas Day message that amounted to a spiritual wake-up call to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.

The Cardinal, regarded as spiritual leader of the four million Roman Catholics in England and Wales, reminded his flock of how much was at stake in Israel at present. Quoting the words of the popular carol, shortly after it had been sung by the congregation, he said: “O little town of Bethlehem, the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”

In particular, the Cardinal said that he deplored the exodus of Christians from Bethlehem and the condition of the town. He said: “How sad it is that Christians in Bethlehem feel compelled to leave the land of their birth for foreign lands, on account of the political situation in the Holy Land.

“How tragic that as a result of all the violence perpetrated there the little town of Christ’s birth is corralled, blocked in by a wall and checkpoints. Borders have been redrawn: families have been separated and ancient landmarks have been lost to the town. Commerce and tourism have been decimated; unemployment has led to an exodus of citizens, most of them Christians.”

He continued: “Yet Bethlehem, the icon of all pilgrim sites, sees only one in ten of the pilgrims who five years ago came to pay homage to the Christ Child. How tragic that Christians, who for centuries have lived in harmony with their neighbours and who have stood resolutely for peace, are being forced out by present circumstances.”

Speaking just hours before leaving on a pastoral visit to Sri Lanka to mark the anniversary of the tsunami, the Cardinal described the people of Bethlehem as “terribly alone”, and urged Christians to visit the town.

He prayed that “the eyes and the hearts of the world be opened to what is happening there” and pleaded for a new strategy for peace. “Let Bethlehem be what it is meant to be: a free and open city,” he said.

The Cardinal said that the past 12 months had been a year of “heroic testimony” to faith. He said: “I cannot remember a time when so many disasters — natural and man-made — have occurred in the space of so short a time: storms in America, the earthquake in Pakistan, bombings in our own city here in London and, of course, the tsunami.”

In spite of the Cardinal’s words, in Bethlehem itself spirits were lifted by the highest turnout of Christmas pilgrims since fighting broke out in September 2000. Israeli officials said about 30,000 pilgrims had converged on the town. Although the crowds were small compared with the peak years in the mid-1990s, the influx of tourists reflected the improved security situation.

Israel and the Palestinians declared a ceasefire last February, bringing a sharp drop in bloodshed. Israel’s recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip has buoyed spirits also. In Christmas messages, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders both expressed wishes for peace in 2006.

Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, the top Roman Catholic envoy in the Holy Land, spoke of the new atmosphere in the air in his midnight Mass address and urged both sides to put a final end to violence. “There seems to be a new Palestinian and Israeli political reality, despite the many complications and hesitations that surround it,” he said.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said that secularists who were determined to take the Christ out of Christmas were in danger of returning Britain to “the mindset of cavemen”.

Dr Williams, preaching at Canterbury Cathedral, said the past year had been one of anniversaries — 200 years since Trafalgar and 60 since the end of the Second World War. It had also put a new anniversary, July 7, in the diaries of this country’s inhabitants.

“It’s all the more strange, then, that so many are so reluctant to treat Christmas as an anniversary,” he said.

“Just as in the Millennium year, there was embarrassment about what it actually commemorated, so there is the same embarrassment about the event that Christmas marks.

“Yet again, we’ve had people trying to find ways of turning Christmas into a bland and empty winter jollification.”

The Archbishop spoke of the power of forgiveness and highlighted the mothers of murder victim Anthony Walker and of paralysed attack victim Abigail Witchells who had both forgiven their children’s attackers.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Milk: do we need a dairy godmother?
• DIY: the women doing it for themselves
• First double portrait of Princes unveiled