In his Christmas message to the world, Pope John Paul II hailed the Jews as the people who gave Jesus Christ to all mankind. His gesture to the people he calls Christianity's "elder brothers" during midnight Mass carried a special resonance. It came the day after a Hanukkah candle was lighted at the Vatican for the first time in history.
"The birth of the Messiah! It is the central event in the history of humanity," Pope John Paul said in his homily. "The whole human race was awaiting it with a vague presentiment; the Chosen People awaited with explicit awareness."
The Pope has done much to repair the ancient rifts between Roman Catholics and Jews. Under him, the Vatican and Israel normalised relations in 1993. Several months ago he issued a major statement on anti-Semitism, part of his quest for an accounting of Catholic misdeeds as Christianity's third millennium approaches.
In that statement, the Pope said wrong interpretations of the New Testament fostered hostility toward Jews and deadened Christians' responses to their persecution.
"Israel, the People of God of the Old Covenant, was chosen to bring to the world . . . the Messiah, the Saviour and Redeemer of all humanity," the Pontiff said during the midnight Mass at St Peter's Basilica.
Thousands of Catholics filling Saint Peter's Square also heard the Pope refer to problems of violence in Africa and the plight of Kurds and Albanians, although without direct references.
The Pope, who is 77, seemed in relatively good health, although he had difficulty reading his address on several occasions. He had skipped the customary Christmas morning Mass to save his energies, although he did lead a midnight Mass where he called for "defence of life and the safeguard of creation".
In Havana, where the Pope will next month make a historic visit, Cubans celebrated Christmas as a public holiday for the first time in nearly three decades. Cubans with hard currency bought plastic Christmas trees, ornaments and presents in state-run dollar shops. Places frequented by tourists or people with hard currency were decorated with trees, tinsel and images of Santa Claus.
President Fidel Castro, seeking to improve ties with the Catholic Church before the visit, announced earlier this month there would be a December 25th holiday this year as a special gesture to honour the Pontiff.
Christmas was dropped as a holiday in 1969 as Cuba, by then firmly embarked on a Communist course after Castro's revolution 10 years earlier, strove to produce a record sugar harvest. But Dr Castro's government has made a string of concessions in recent weeks ahead of the pope's historic visit from January 21st-25th. Those included granting the Christmas holiday, which the Pope requested when he met Dr Castro at the Vatican a year ago.