Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Pope Will Hold Traditional Christmas Midnight Mass at Saint Peter's Basilica

Aired December 24, 2003 - 05:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the pope is celebrating Christmas with the traditional midnight mass at Saint Peter's Basilica. But his usual busy Christmas has been cut to a minimum because of his age and the effects of Parkinson's Disease. On Christmas Day, the pontiff's only announced public engagement will be his blessing to the city and to the world.
Well, for more on Christmas in Bethlehem, we turn to our senior international editor, David Clinch, with a whole lot on deck for us.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes.

WHITFIELD: And unfortunately in Bethlehem, a very somber Christmas celebration.

CLINCH: It is. But we're determined to bring as much of the cheer of Christmas as we possibly can today, even in Bethlehem.

WHITFIELD: Oh, yes?

CLINCH: No, not a lot of people are turning up. I wouldn't be that pleased about bringing my family to Bethlehem at the moment. It's in the midst of the violence going on between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It's not a very safe environment. But there are celebrations there today. There will be a mass later on today and we will bring you that.

The Vatican, no violence going on there that we know of, but there will be the post-midnight mass tonight, the middle of the late afternoon Eastern time that we will bring you, as well, from there.

And elsewhere in the world, again, no violence, you know, in places like Paris, London and elsewhere. There are, of course, awareness of the terror alerts that are going around the world. But in the midst of that, people are celebrating Christmas and we'll bring you as much of that as we possibly can from around the world without marring it with violence and battles and everything else, although, of course, those continue in Iraq and elsewhere.

The U.S. soldiers there in Iraq doing the same thing that we're doing, trying to put as much of a positive face today as they possibly can on Christmas Eve and into Christmas Day. Christian services taking place all day during the day in Iraq, Tikrit and elsewhere. We'll be bringing you those. And, you know, in the midst even of this new operation that they're carrying out in Baghdad...

WHITFIELD: Iron Grip.

CLINCH: They are carrying -- having as much of a Christmas mood as they can. And David Letterman is there today in Baghdad.

WHITFIELD: Oh.

CLINCH: I don't know we've reported that yet. But he'll be around later today. Some time in the next few hours, there's an event at one of the U.S. bases. We'll bring you some video of that late afternoon -- or late morning this morning. So that should cheer people up.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

CLINCH: Mad cow now the very cheery story, of course.

WHITFIELD: Not at all.

CLINCH: It's really a very depressing story. I mean, and some people are saying it's inevitable that this would eventually come to the U.S. It's not confirmed that it is here and that, obviously, is our primary concern to date, is to await the confirmation here in the U.S. of whether, in fact, there is mad cow here. But in the meantime, the rest of the world watching very closely.

We've decided to do some reporting from Britain, which, of course, went through all stages of this...

WHITFIELD: Sure.

CLINCH: ... how it was handled in Britain originally, not very well, even by the government's admission.

WHITFIELD: And great efforts were made to try to keep, you know, what was taking place in Great Britain from taking place over here.

CLINCH: Well, that's true, although really one of the most difficult things that happened in Britain at the time is that they tried to sort of keep it under control in the sense of not really making a big deal of it...

WHITFIELD: Reporting it.

CLINCH: And then eventually had to make a huge deal of it, hundreds of thousands of cattle slaughtered in the end. And looking into, we'll be doing some reporting from London later today, just looking into the whole psyche of how British people viewed how this crisis was dealt with there and just how they view now, eating beef now.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

CLINCH: I mean the crisis is over, for the most part, but also looking -- you know, we see a lot of pictures of cows falling down and it is mad cow disease. But, of course, the fear is what it does to humans. WHITFIELD: Yes.

CLINCH: And in Britain there's very real material that we can look at and stories that we can look at of human beings who have the disease, the human form of the disease.

WHITFIELD: OK.

CLINCH: Very scary.

WHITFIELD: All right.

CLINCH: And I'll come back at six. Another not so cheery story, the queen's dog or her favorite porgy...

WHITFIELD: They came out of crisis.

CLINCH: ... killed, we're told now, by Princess Anne's dog on Monday.

WHITFIELD: OK, we're going to talk some more about that about...

CLINCH: We'll come back at six and talk more about that.

WHITFIELD: ... an hour from now.

OK.

Thanks a lot, David.

CLINCH: All right.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Saint Peter's Basilica>


Aired December 24, 2003 - 05:37   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the pope is celebrating Christmas with the traditional midnight mass at Saint Peter's Basilica. But his usual busy Christmas has been cut to a minimum because of his age and the effects of Parkinson's Disease. On Christmas Day, the pontiff's only announced public engagement will be his blessing to the city and to the world.
Well, for more on Christmas in Bethlehem, we turn to our senior international editor, David Clinch, with a whole lot on deck for us.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes.

WHITFIELD: And unfortunately in Bethlehem, a very somber Christmas celebration.

CLINCH: It is. But we're determined to bring as much of the cheer of Christmas as we possibly can today, even in Bethlehem.

WHITFIELD: Oh, yes?

CLINCH: No, not a lot of people are turning up. I wouldn't be that pleased about bringing my family to Bethlehem at the moment. It's in the midst of the violence going on between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It's not a very safe environment. But there are celebrations there today. There will be a mass later on today and we will bring you that.

The Vatican, no violence going on there that we know of, but there will be the post-midnight mass tonight, the middle of the late afternoon Eastern time that we will bring you, as well, from there.

And elsewhere in the world, again, no violence, you know, in places like Paris, London and elsewhere. There are, of course, awareness of the terror alerts that are going around the world. But in the midst of that, people are celebrating Christmas and we'll bring you as much of that as we possibly can from around the world without marring it with violence and battles and everything else, although, of course, those continue in Iraq and elsewhere.

The U.S. soldiers there in Iraq doing the same thing that we're doing, trying to put as much of a positive face today as they possibly can on Christmas Eve and into Christmas Day. Christian services taking place all day during the day in Iraq, Tikrit and elsewhere. We'll be bringing you those. And, you know, in the midst even of this new operation that they're carrying out in Baghdad...

WHITFIELD: Iron Grip.

CLINCH: They are carrying -- having as much of a Christmas mood as they can. And David Letterman is there today in Baghdad.

WHITFIELD: Oh.

CLINCH: I don't know we've reported that yet. But he'll be around later today. Some time in the next few hours, there's an event at one of the U.S. bases. We'll bring you some video of that late afternoon -- or late morning this morning. So that should cheer people up.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

CLINCH: Mad cow now the very cheery story, of course.

WHITFIELD: Not at all.

CLINCH: It's really a very depressing story. I mean, and some people are saying it's inevitable that this would eventually come to the U.S. It's not confirmed that it is here and that, obviously, is our primary concern to date, is to await the confirmation here in the U.S. of whether, in fact, there is mad cow here. But in the meantime, the rest of the world watching very closely.

We've decided to do some reporting from Britain, which, of course, went through all stages of this...

WHITFIELD: Sure.

CLINCH: ... how it was handled in Britain originally, not very well, even by the government's admission.

WHITFIELD: And great efforts were made to try to keep, you know, what was taking place in Great Britain from taking place over here.

CLINCH: Well, that's true, although really one of the most difficult things that happened in Britain at the time is that they tried to sort of keep it under control in the sense of not really making a big deal of it...

WHITFIELD: Reporting it.

CLINCH: And then eventually had to make a huge deal of it, hundreds of thousands of cattle slaughtered in the end. And looking into, we'll be doing some reporting from London later today, just looking into the whole psyche of how British people viewed how this crisis was dealt with there and just how they view now, eating beef now.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

CLINCH: I mean the crisis is over, for the most part, but also looking -- you know, we see a lot of pictures of cows falling down and it is mad cow disease. But, of course, the fear is what it does to humans. WHITFIELD: Yes.

CLINCH: And in Britain there's very real material that we can look at and stories that we can look at of human beings who have the disease, the human form of the disease.

WHITFIELD: OK.

CLINCH: Very scary.

WHITFIELD: All right.

CLINCH: And I'll come back at six. Another not so cheery story, the queen's dog or her favorite porgy...

WHITFIELD: They came out of crisis.

CLINCH: ... killed, we're told now, by Princess Anne's dog on Monday.

WHITFIELD: OK, we're going to talk some more about that about...

CLINCH: We'll come back at six and talk more about that.

WHITFIELD: ... an hour from now.

OK.

Thanks a lot, David.

CLINCH: All right.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Saint Peter's Basilica>