He also covered the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in May 2002.
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Mr Obama was accompanied on his visit of the Church of the Nativity by President Abbas.
Balancing these are numberless images of devotional scenes, the Nativity, the Madonna and other religious figures.
The Pope also said the notion of animals in the stable were latter-day additions to the nativity scene.
He said the nativity story in St Luke's Gospel, in contrast, had a "message of joy and good news for everyone".
In Bethlehem itself, Christmas Eve Mass was celebrated at the 1, 700-year-old Church of the Nativity, on the spot where it is believed Jesus was born.
During this week's visit, Mr Obama is due to visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born.
The Church of the Nativity and pilgrimage route, Bethlehem (Palestine) will be processed on an emergency basis and the documents that concern it are not yet available.
Today it is the last bastion of resistance in the re-occupied West Bank, as Palestinians and Israeli soldiers engage in a bitter, snarling contest around the Church of the Nativity.
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At the carol service, a packed hall enjoy the women's choir, watch the nativity play acted by children dressed in towels and blankets and listen to the army leader's humorous address.
There is genuine fear that the holiest sites of Christianity, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, will become mere museums.
"He said he wanted to pray at the Church of the Nativity on Christmas Eve, even though he knew it was illegal for him to leave Israel, " police spokesman Gil Kleiman said.
The conservation team also reviewed the microclimate in the Temple and the restoration of the three monuments, the Asoka Pillar, the Marker Stone and the Nativity Sculpture carried out in 2011 and 2012.
Israel and the Palestinians held talks to try to end the stand-off at Bethlehem where about 300 people have been under siege in the Church of the Nativity for the past three weeks.
UNESCO's World Heritage Committee will consider the Church of the Nativity among 36 sites nominated for inclusion on the list at its next meeting, to be held from June 24 to July 6, in St Petersburg, Russia.
One of Christianity's most holy places, the site's focal point is the Grotto of the Nativity, a rectangular cavern beneath the church that has been considered the site of Christ's birth since at least the 2nd century.
And while I had been to Jerusalem before, where Jesus healed the sick, and cured the blind, and embraced the least of these, I also had a chance to go to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
In an unusual, fast-track procedure, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was accepted as a world-heritage site and declared to be in danger at the behest of the Palestinian authority which was, controversially, admitted to UNESCO as a full member last November.
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It was at this point that it occurred to me that rather than be upset by the inconvenience I should realise that this was truly a more authentic way to approach the Church of the Nativity than in the airconditioned comfort of a coach.
But while the book points out that the Gospels do not support the presence of animals at Jesus' birth -- a detail apparently added in later centuries -- the pope does not suggest they should be thrown out of the Nativity scene, Speciale said.
He was also in the middle of the Israeli military campaign which followed, and was in Bethlehem for the 39-day long siege of the Church of the Nativity, His reporting of these events earned him the "Journalist of the Year" award from the Atlanta Press club in 2003.
When U.S. President Barack Obama arrives in Israel on March 20th for an official state visit to the richly historic country, his itinerary will include a visit to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a stop at the Israel Museum to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, and a close-up look at a missile defense battery.
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She's cast to carry Mary in the local Nativity play.
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President Obama said that this year was particularly special for him because he visited the Holy Land just before Easter, including the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem.
So the traditional outdoor Nativity scene unveiled on Christmas Eve next to a giant illuminated Christmas tree in St Peter's Square has been paid for not by the Holy See but by the taxpayers of one of Italy's poorest regions, Basilicata, in the heel of Italy.
Local raw materials--say, olive wood from the West Bank for a Nativity scene or wool from alpacas raised in the Andes foothills for a knit hat--are favored.
So if one atheist or attention-grabbing student in a public school is offended by a prayer, the Ten Commandments or a nativity scene on school property, liberals demand that the offending object must go.
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Many of us are lucky enough to recall with pleasure the Christmases of our childhood: the gifts left by the chimney for Father Christmas, carols sung in biting cold weather, nativity plays, the warm glow we felt as Mother carried in the flaming Christmas pudding decorated with holly.
As well as children missing lessons, she said the children's work and even their nativity costumes were ruined in the floods.
The piece, a kind of sequel to the team's 2000 Nativity oratorio, "El Nino, " is in two halves, the first recounting the raising of Lazarus from the dead, the second the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
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