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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/pope-urges-courage-for-persecuted.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Pope Benedict XVI delivers the Urbi et Orbi (to the City and to the World) message in St Peter's Square at the Vatican (AP)" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/min-pope-urges-courage-for-persecuted.jpg" alt="Pope Benedict XVI delivers the Urbi et Orbi (to the City and to the World) message in St Peter's Square at the Vatican (AP)"/></a></p>
<p>Iraqis have celebrated a sombre Christmas in a Baghdad cathedral stained with dried blood, while Pope Benedict XVI urged Chinese Catholics to stay loyal despite restrictions, in an address laced with worry for the world&#8217;s Christian minorities.</p>
<p>Saturday&#8217;s grim news seemed to highlight the Pope&#8217;s concern for his flock&#8217;s welfare.</p>
<p>In northern Nigeria, attacks on two churches by Muslim sect members claimed six lives, while bombings in central Nigeria, a region plagued by Christian-Muslim violence, killed 32 people.</p>
<p>Eleven people including a priest were injured by a bombing during Christmas Mass in a police chapel in the Philippines, which has the largest Catholic population in Asia. The attack took place on Jolo island, a stronghold of al Qaida linked militants.</p>
<p>But joy seemed to prevail in Bethlehem, the West Bank town where Jesus was born, which bustled with its biggest crowd of Christian pilgrims in years.</p>
<p>The suffering of Christians around the world framed much of the pontiff&#8217;s traditional Christmas Day &#8220;Urbi et Orbi&#8221; (to the city and to the world) message.</p>
<p>Bundled up in an ermine-trimmed crimson cape against a chilly rain, he delivered his assessment of world suffering from the central balcony of the Vatican&#8217;s St Peter&#8217;s Basilica.</p>
<p>Benedict&#8217;s exhortation to Catholics who have risked persecution in China highlighted a rise in tensions between Beijing and the Vatican over the Chinese government&#8217;s defiance of the Pope&#8217;s authority to name bishops.</p>
<p>Chinese church officials did not immediately comment. A day earlier, one said the Vatican bore responsibility for restoring dialogue after it had criticised leadership changes in China&#8217;s official church.</p>
<p>Persecution of Christians has been a pressing concern at the Vatican, especially over its dwindling flock in the Middle East. Christians make up only about 2% of the population in the Holy Land today, compared with about 15% in 1950. Earlier this month Benedict denounced lack of freedom of worship as a threat to world peace.</p>
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