Pope calls for nations to overcome divisions in Christmas address as communities celebrate worldwide

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis in his traditional Christmas message on Wednesday urged “all people of all nations” to find courage during this Holy Year “to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions” plaguing the world, from the Middle East to Ukraine, Africa to Asia.

The pontiff's “Urbi et Orbi” — “To the City and the World” — address serves as a summary of the woes facing the world this year. As Christmas coincided with the start of the 2025 Holy Year celebration that he dedicated to hope, Francis called for broad reconciliation, “even (with) our enemies.”

"I invite every individual, and all people of all nations ... to become pilgrims of hope,'' the pope said from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica to throngs of people below.

The pope invoked the Holy Door of St. Peter’s, which he opened on Christmas Eve to launch the 2025 Jubilee, as representing God’s mercy, which he said tears down walls of division and dispels hatred.

He called for arms to be silenced in war-torn Ukraine and in the Middle East, singling out Christian communities in Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as Lebanon and Syria. Francis repeated his calls for the release of hostages taken from Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

Pilgrims were lined up on Christmas Day to walk through the great Holy Door at the entrance of St. Peter’s as the Jubilee is expected to bring some 32 million Catholic faithful to Rome. Traversing the Holy Door is one way that the faithful can obtain indulgences, or forgiveness for sins during a Jubilee, a once-every-quarter-century tradition that dates from 1300.

“You feel so humble when you go through the door, that once you go through it is almost like a release, a release of emotions,″ said Blanca Martin, a pilgrim from San Diego. "You feel like now you are able to let go and put everything in the hands of God. See, I am getting emotional. It’s just a beautiful experience.”

Pilgrims submitted to security controls, amid new safety concerns following a deadly Christmas market attack in Germany.

Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day Festival of Lights, begins this year on Christmas Day, which has only happened four times since 1900.

The calendar confluence has inspired some religious leaders to host interfaith gatherings, such as a Hanukkah party hosted last week by several Jewish organizations in Houston, Texas, bringing together members of the city’s Latino and Jewish communities for latkes, the traditional potato pancake eaten on Hanukkah, topped with guacamole and salsa.

While Hanukkah is intended as an upbeat, celebratory holiday, rabbis note that it’s taking place this year as wars rage in the Middle East and fears rise over widespread incidents of antisemitism. The holidays overlap infrequently because the Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles and is not in sync with the Gregorian calendar, which sets Christmas on Dec. 25.

The last time Hanukkah began on Christmas Day was in 2005.

On the front lines of eastern Ukraine, soldiers spent another Christmas locked in grinding battles with Russian forces. It's their second Christmas at war and away from home since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022.

A soldier with the call sign OREL, the Ukrainian commander of 211th battalion, said he had forgotten it was Christmas Day.

“Honestly, I remembered about this holiday only in the evening (after) someone wrote in the group that today is a holiday,'' he said. “We have no holidays, no weekends. ... I don’t know, I have no feelings, everything is plain, everything is gray, and my thoughts are only about how to preserve my personnel and how to stop the enemy.”

Others, however, said the day brought hope that there would one day be peace. Ukrainians expect the inauguration of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump may bring about a ceasefire deal, and many soldiers who have borne the brunt of nearly three years of fighting, said they hoped that would be the case.

“On such a day, today, I’d like to wish for all of this to be over, for everyone,'' said Valerie, a Ukrainian soldier in the 24th Mechanized Brigade who would only give his first name. “Of course, there is always hope, there is always hope. Everyone wants peace, everyone wants peace and to return home.”

Residents of New York City awoke to their first white Christmas in Central Park since 2009, according to the National Weather Service New York. The 843-acre urban park recorded a snow depth of 1 inch at 7 a.m.

In Massachusetts, school children came up with names for a dozen hardworking snowplows, including “Taylor Drift,” “Control-Salt-Delete” and “It’s Snow Problem.” The Massachusetts Department of Transportation this week announced the winners of its competition to name the snowplows, which was open to elementary and middle school students. Other winning names included “Meltin’ John,” “Ice Ice Baby” and the “Abominable Plowman.”

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden spent part of Christmas Day calling each branch of the military stationed overseas to thank them for their service.

German celebrations were darkened by a car attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday that left five people dead, including a 9-year-old boy, and 200 people injured.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier rewrote his recorded Christmas Day speech to address the attack, saying that “there is grief, pain, horror and incomprehension over what took place in Magdeburg.” He urged Germans to stand together and said “hate and violence must not have the last word.”

A 50-year-old Saudi doctor who had practiced medicine in Germany since 2006 was arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm. The suspect’s X account describes him as a former Muslim and is filled with anti-Islamic themes.

Some Germans participated in joyful holiday traditions despite tough times. Members of the winter and ice swimming club Seehunde Berlin, or the Berlin Seals, waded into Oranke Lake wearing Santa hats as part of their annual Christmas Day swim. Meanwhile, rabbis gathered in town to watch the set-up of a giant Hanukkah menorah in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

An elderly Christian couple in the Gaza Strip has marked Christmas in a squalid tent camp, separated from their families and friends.

Amal Amouri and her husband, Tony Al-Masri, are members of Gaza’s tiny Christian community. While many of Gaza’s 1,000 or so Christians have sheltered in a Gaza City church throughout the war, the couple is among the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians who have fled to southern Gaza.

The tent camps in the Muwasi area barely have enough food or proper shelter. Al-Masri recently recovered from a stroke and walks with a cane.

Al-Masri said that before the war, his family would travel to the West Bank town of Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, to celebrate the Christmas. He said being separated from them was especially difficult.

“On days like these, I would be with my children in Bethlehem and with my grandchildren, sitting with all the family. We have been deprived of all of this,” he said. “This is the hardest thing for me. For two years I have not seen my children or grandchildren.”

His wife hung a wooden cross inside their tent, which has pictures of Christian leaders and Jesus and Virgin Mary as well as written prayers in every corner. “I only wish for peace,” she said.

Barry reported from Milan. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; Rashid Yehya in Teleskaf, Iraq; Evgeniy Maloletka in the Donetsk region, Ukraine; Nick Perry in Boston; and David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed to this report.

Swimmers take part in the Macmillan Boscombe White Christmas Dip, in aid of Macmillan Caring Locally, at Boscombe Pier in Bournemouth, England, Wednesday Dec. 25, 2024. (Andrew Matthews/PA via AP)

Carlos Hebert Plante, who boogie boards daily, dressed as Santa Claus gets ready to hit the St-Lawrence Riveramid an air temperature of -14 degrees Celsius on Christmas Day, in Montreal, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (Bernard Brault /The Canadian Press via AP)

Carlos Hebert Plante, who boogie boards daily, dressed as Santa Claus gets ready to hit the St-Lawrence River amid an air temperature of -14 degrees Celsius on Christmas Day, in Montreal, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (Bernard Brault /The Canadian Press via AP)

Carlos Hebert Plante, who boogie boards daily, dressed as Santa Claus hits the St-Lawrence River amid an air temperature of -14 degrees Celsius on Christmas Day, in Montreal, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (Bernard Brault /The Canadian Press via AP)

Tony Al-Masri, center left, sits with neighbours outside the tent he and his wife Amal Amouri, both Christians, share at the Muwassi tent camp near Khan Younis, Gaza Strip on Christmas Day Wednesday Dec. 25, 2024.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Amal Amouri sets up a little altar at the tent she and her husband Tony Al-Masri, both Christians, share at the Muwassi tent camp near Khan Younis, Gaza Strip on Christmas Day Wednesday Dec. 25, 2024.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Amal Amouri shows a cross to the photographer at the tent she and her husband Tony Al-Masri, both Christians, share at the Muwassi tent camp near Khan Younis, Gaza Strip on Christmas Day Wednesday Dec. 25, 2024.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Elderly Christian married couple Amal Amouri and her husband Tony Al-Masri sit at their tent at the Muwassi tent camp near Khan Younis, Gaza Strip on Christmas Day Wednesday Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Members of the winter and ice swimming club 'Seehunde Berlin', (Berlin Seals), wearing Christmas-themed hats, walk into the water during the traditional annual Christmas swim on Christmas Day, at the Oranke Lake in Berlin, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

A man wearing a national costume celebrates Christmas near St. Michael Monastery in a city centre in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Children wearing national suits celebrate Christmas near St. Michael Monastery in a city centre in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Girls in national costumes celebrate Christmas near St. Michael Monastery in a city centre in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

People wearing national suits sing carols as they celebrate Christmas near St. Michael Monastery in a city centre in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Military chaplain Yurii of the 24th Mechanized Brigade holds a church service for an infantry unit during Christmas near the frontline town of Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Pope Francis looks on after delivering the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for 'to the city and to the world' ) Christmas' day blessing from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis sits before delivering the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for 'to the city and to the world' ) Christmas' day blessing from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis delivers the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for 'to the city and to the world' ) Christmas' day blessing from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis delivers the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for 'to the city and to the world' ) Christmas' day blessing from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis delivers the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for 'to the city and to the world' ) Christmas' day blessing from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis waves before delivering the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for 'to the city and to the world' ) Christmas' day blessing from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Swiss Guards march in front of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Swiss Guards march in front of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Christians attend the Christmas Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral Church, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, center, leads the Christmas morning Mass at the Chapel of Saint Catherine, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A nun holds a child to light a candle before the Christmas morning Mass at the Chapel of Saint Catherine, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa leads the Christmas midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Wednesday Dec. 25, 2024. (Alaa Badarneh/Pool via EPA)

Fireworks burst over Saydnaya Convent during the lighting of the Christmas tree, in Saydnaya town on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Houses are seen along the mountain as a cross stands over the Greek Orthodox convent Saint Takla on Christmas Eve in Maaloula, some 60 km northern Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Christians attend the Christmas midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Tuesday Dec. 24, 2024. (Alaa Badarneh/Pool via EPA)

Christians attend the Christmas mass in the Greek Orthodox convent Saint Takla, in Maaloula, some 60 km northern Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, right, and Rabbi Shmuel Segal, left, watch the set-up of a giant Hanukkah Menorah by the Jewish Chabad Educational Center ahead of the Jewish Hanukkah holiday, in front of the Brandenburg Gate at the Pariser Platz in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Faithful arrive to walk through the Holy Door of St.Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, after it was opened by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve marking the start of the Catholic 2025 Jubilee. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Faithful take photos as they arrive to walk through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, after it was opened by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve marking the start of the Catholic 2025 Jubilee. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Faithful walk through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, after it was opened by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve marking the start of the Catholic 2025 Jubilee. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Faithful walk through the Holy Door of St.Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, after it was opened by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve marking the start of the Catholic 2025 Jubilee. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Faithful arrive to walk through the Holy Door of St.Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, after it was opened by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve marking the start of the Catholic 2025 Jubilee. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Faithful walk through the Holy Door of St.Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, after it was opened by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve marking the start of the Catholic 2025 Jubilee. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Faithful walk through the Holy Door of St.Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, after it was opened by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve marking the start of the Catholic 2025 Jubilee. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Faithful walk through the Holy Door of St.Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, after it was opened by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve marking the start of the Catholic 2025 Jubilee. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Faithful walk through the Holy Door of St.Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, after it was opened by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve marking the start of the Catholic 2025 Jubilee. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A man stops in prayer as he walks through the Holy Door of St.Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, after it was opened by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve marking the start of the Catholic 2025 Jubilee. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

LOS LLANITOS, México (AP) — On a dirt field on Mexico’s Pacific coast, five cousins between the ages of 8 and 13 strip down and kick off their shoes. Nearby, adults help them fasten the pre-Hispanic-style “fajado,” securing loincloths and leather belts that wrap around their hips.

The Osuna children grab the rubber ball, all 3.2 kilograms of it — around 7 pounds or seven times heavier than a soccer ball — and begin playing. Only the hips may touch it, forcing players to leap through the air or dive low when it skims the ground.

As Mexico prepares to co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the nation is looking back 3,400 years to one of the oldest team sports: the ancient ballgame known as ulama, a ritual practice nearly erased during the Spanish conquest that survived only in the remote pockets of northwestern Mexico before its late 20th-century rebirth. Today, authorities and its modern players are leveraging the momentum of international soccer to shine a spotlight on the ancient sport once again.

While players acknowledge that tourism fueled the sport’s revival, many worry that projecting an “exotic” image undermines a tradition central to their identity.

“We must rid the game of the notion that it is a living fossil,” said Emilie Carreón, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM, and director of a project aimed at studying and practicing the sport.

That's exactly what the Osuna family is trying to do. After ulama player Aurelio Osuna died, his widow, María Herrera, 53, continued his legacy, teaching the ballgame to their grandchildren in their small village in Sinaloa, 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) northwest of Mexico City.

“This seed will bear fruit someday,” she said.

According to the Popol Vuh, the sacred Mayan book, the world was created from a ballgame, where light and darkness clashed to balance life and death and set the universe in motion.

Long before the Maya, the Olmecs — the earliest known Mesoamerican civilization — practiced the sport; the recreation of this clash of opposing forces was common in various pre-Hispanic cultures. The evidence is in millennial rubber balls unearthed in Mexico and in nearly 2,000 ball courts found from Nicaragua to Arizona.

The game, depicted in codices, stone carvings and sculptures, had many variations and meanings, from fertility or war ceremonies, to political acts and even sacrifices.

While some players were beheaded — possibly the losers — Guatemalan archaeologist and anthropologist Carlos Navarrete explained this occurred only during specific periods and in certain regions. The physically demanding game was primarily a big social event, drawing crowds for fun and betting.

Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés was impressed by the spectacle presented by the Aztec emperor Moctezuma but the Spanish ultimately banned ulama and ordered the destruction of its courts, likely viewing the tradition as a form of resistance to Christianity. For the Catholic Church “the ball was the living devil,” Carreón said.

The game — played by hitting the ball with the hip, the forearm or a mallet — survived only on the Mexican northern Pacific coast, where the colonial process led by Jesuit priests was less aggressive and ulama was accepted in Catholic festivities, said Manuel Aguilar Moreno, a professor of art history at California State University.

On the opening day of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, spectators watched as burly men contorted their bodies in unexpected ways to keep the rubber ball moving for as long as possible. The exhibition sparked studies about the ballgame and how to preserve it in the following decades.

Luis Aurelio Osuna, 30, Herrera’s eldest son, began playing hip ulama after school, just as his father did decades ago in Los Llanitos, a ranch next to the port city of Mazatlán. Now his three children also play.

Osuna and his mother teach the children how to hit the ball and guide them through the complicated rules, which include a scoring system with points that are won and lost.

They do it out of passion, but also out of pragmatism in a state where organized crime is pervasive.

“We need to find a way to keep them entertained with good things,” said Osuna.

Hip ulama teams have up to six players and the Osuna family sometimes participates in tournaments or exhibitions.

Decades ago, matches were big events tied to religious feasts, sometimes stretching on for an entire week. But those days are gone, as interest waned and rubber balls became hard to get.

In the 1980s, filmmaker Roberto Rochín documented the work of perhaps the last rubber ball-maker in the mountains of Sinaloa. The artisan made them similar to the Olmecs, who discovered that mixing hot rubber sap with a plant created a strong, elastic and durable material. This civilization made some of the oldest balls of the world.

During the 1990s, staff from a resort in the Mexican Caribbean traveled across the country in search of Sinaloan families who could represent the ballgame as a tourist attraction in the Riviera Maya, where no one played it anymore.

“It’s pure spectacle: they paint their faces and put on feathered costumes,” Herrera said. Yet, she acknowledges the value. “That’s where the revival began.”

The ballgame began to spread and to be known outside Mexico. Osuna, with the family team his father had formed, ended up playing hip ulama in a Roman amphitheater in Italy. It attracted so much attention that they were hired for a deodorant commercial, he said.

As the World Cup approaches, authorities and corporations are launching exhibitions in Mexico City and Guadalajara, and featuring ulama players in ad campaigns highlighting Mexican heritage — a move that has sparked mixed feelings.

“We’re not circus monkeys,” says Ángel Ortega, a 21-year-old ulama player from Mexico City who recently participated in a TV commercial alongside football players.

Ilse Sil, a player and member of the UNAM project led by Carreón, believes that institutional support will help to preserve ulama but officials need to promote the game in communities and schools to recruit more young players, as it remains a marginal sport with approximately 1,000 players mainly in México and Guatemala.

In Los Llanitos, Herrera’s grandchildren love playing. They don't care where — in the dirt field, in a court or even in the house corridor — but always with the precious inheritance: a handmade decades-old rubber ball from the mountains of Sinaloa. They say it cushions the blows better.

Eight-year-old Kiki is the most enthusiastic. He says he is determined to keep practicing until he fulfills the dream of leading a team of his own.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Juan Osuna plays ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

The Osuna family poses for a photo before a match of ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, that they organized in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Iker Salgueido plays ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Iker Salgueiro stands still as an adult fastens a pre-Hispanic-style “fajado,” or leather belt, in preparation for ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Youth play ulama, a traditional Mesoamerican ballgame dating to pre-Hispanic times, in Los Llanitos on the outskirts of Mazatlan, Mexico, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)