As the world marks the Advent Season in preparation for celebrating the divine birth of Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, peoples worldwide look forward to Christmas with eyes full of hope for the advent of global peace and mercy in line with the teachings of the Prince of Peace.

This is the period when the faithful plead the Almighty Lord for the attainment of global peace as well as for solving the world's chronic diseases represented in violence, wars, starvation, food shortages, unemployment, poverty, and diseases.

During Pope Francis' recitation of the Angelus prayer after Mass on the Solemnity of Christ the King in Asti and prayers for an end to wars on 20 November 2022, he made an impressive and abridged statement that sums up the world's current affairs.

In a recent Arabic-language article by Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, he elaborates on the status and concerns expressed by Christian Iraqis while stating that "half of them have already left Iraq for good and the others are awaiting the earliest possible opportunity to follow the same model which is attributed to instability and la

Reports have recently spread that Ukrainians are encouraged to switch Christmas celebrations to December 25 in line with the Gregorian calendar.

This is corroborated by the fact that for the first time in centuries, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine will allow worshippers to celebrate Christmas on 25 December, as marked by the Gregorian calendar. 

I repeatedly read the article by my friend Fayez Al-Fayez published in Al Rai daily on November 14 titled, "Where is the Jordanian-Christian Project!"Frankly speaking, I did not understand what the writer wants to say as the exclamation mark at the end of the headline raises the suspicion that the project does not exist.

Jordan, which is an integral part of the Holy Land, has recently received a boost in the field of religious tourism when the National Association of Directors of Christian Pilgrimage in France (Association Nationale des Directeurs de Pèlerinages/ANNNP) announced recently that their next meeting will be held in Jordan in November 2023 marking its 75^th anniversary. 

In his address at the COP27 climate change conference, Holy See Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said that “we cannot ignore the link between the climate crisis and lack of access to food and water." He furthermore stressed that hunger, conflict, climate and inequality are firmly interconnected".

In 2001, UNESCO designated the 10th of November as the World Science Day for Peace and Development. “This day highlights the important role of science in society and the need to engage the wider public in discussions on emerging scientific issues.

With wars and a state of instability erupting in various parts of the world culminating in the outbreak of the Ukraine-Russian conflict, people of good will focus attention on the children who lost their parents and homes as well as were deprived of the opportunity to live a normal life by being bereft of attending schools, thus wrecking the prospects for a bright future in the melee of non-ending conflagrations.