Pope Benedict XVI prayed for peace in the Middle East and warned against religious fundamentalism in his traditional Christmas Eve mass late Monday, DPA reported.
"Let us pray that Israelis and Palestinians may be able to live their lives in the peace of the one God and in freedom," the head of the Catholic Church said in his homily. He also mentioned conflict-stricken Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and their neighbours.
He prayed for peace in the region and asked "that Christians in those lands where our faith was born may be able to continue living there, that Christians and Muslims may build up their countries side by side in God's peace."
He refuted assertions that religions, especially monotheism, are the cause of the violence and the wars in the world, though he acknowledged that "religion can become corrupted." He warned: "We must be on the lookout for these distortions of the sacred."