Pope Leo XIV marks his first Christmas with a plea for peace, reviving traditions and presiding over Jubilee’s end in a packed Vatican schedule.
Newsdesk (24/12/2025 Gaudium Press )Seven months into his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV is preparing to lead the Church’s Christmas celebrations for the first time, placing renewed emphasis on peace amid a world marked by conflict.
“The Christmas of the Lord is the Christmas of Peace.” This quotation from St. Leo the Great — the fifth-century Pope after whom the current pontiff is named — adorns the traditional Christmas card issued by the Prefecture of the Papal Household. It serves as Leo XIV’s inaugural holiday greeting to the faithful and underscores a theme that has defined his young papacy.
The card’s cover features a 1955 mosaic by Italian artist Alberto Salietti, originally created for the papal apartment. The choice of both image and text reflects the Pope’s deliberate nod to his historic predecessor while reaffirming his own message of reconciliation.
Speaking to journalists on December 23 outside Villa Barberini in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo XIV appealed directly to “people of goodwill” to respect “at least on the feast of the birth of the Saviour, one day of peace.” The plea echoed the “unarmed and disarming” peace he invoked on May 8, moments after his election, when he first appeared on the Central Loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The Vatican’s Christmas schedule begins in earnest on December 24 with Midnight Mass for the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, celebrated at 10:00 p.m. in St. Peter’s Basilica. Ten children from South Korea, India, Mozambique, Paraguay, Poland, and Ukraine will carry flowers to the nativity scene, accompanying the Pope in procession — a gesture symbolizing the universal reach of the Christmas message.
On Christmas Day itself, Pope Leo XIV will celebrate Mass at 10:00 a.m. in the Vatican Basilica, reviving a practice not observed by his immediate predecessors, Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI. The last papal Christmas Day Mass was offered by St. John Paul II in 1994. Later that afternoon, the Pope will deliver the traditional “Urbi et Orbi” blessing to the city and the world from the Central Loggia.
The post-Christmas days remain busy. On December 26, the feast of St. Stephen, and again on December 28, Pope Leo will lead the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square.
New Year’s Eve will feature two rare events. In the morning, the Pope will hold a general audience — the first on December 31 in half a century, since Pope St. Paul VI did so in 1975. That evening at 5:00 p.m., he will preside over First Vespers and the singing of the Te Deum in thanksgiving for the year past.
The new year opens with the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, on January 1, 2026. Pope Leo XIV will celebrate Mass at 10:00 a.m. for the 59th World Day of Peace, followed by the Angelus at noon. The Angelus will also be recited on Sunday, January 4.
The liturgical calendar then brings the 2025 Jubilee Year to its formal close. On January 6, the Solemnity of the Epiphany, the Pope will preside over Mass at 9:30 a.m., after which the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica will be sealed.
Finally, on January 11, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Pope Leo XIV will celebrate Mass in the Sistine Chapel and administer the sacrament of baptism to several infants — continuing a cherished papal tradition.
Through an intensive schedule of liturgies, blessings, and revived practices, Pope Leo XIV’s first Christmas as pontiff weaves together ancient tradition, symbolic gestures of global unity, and an insistent call for peace in a troubled world.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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