Pope Francis leads Christmas Eve Mass

Tens of thousands of Catholics from around the world attended Christmas Eve Mass, led by Pope Francis at the Vatican, Thursday.

Pope Francis is due to preside over the Midnight Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City on December 24, as the Christian world celebrates Christmas Eve. Across the world, Christians have begun marking Christmas with services, with Pope Francis holding midnight mass at the Vatican. Pope Francis led the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics into Christmas on Thursday (December 24), urging those “intoxicated” by possessions and superficial appearances to return to the essential values of life. Celebrating a Christmas eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Francis, whose nearly three-year-old papacy has been marked by calls for sobriety and compassion for the less fortunate, said Christmas was the time to “once more discover who we are”.