Im Christine Wendell welcome to the program. We begin our broad cost in brome where pope francis is set to give his yearly irby itll be Christmas Day blessing from the balcony off the st this piece has Pacifica Christians around the bold also integrating the birth of jesus thousands have come to see the pontiff this cross over to rome. All right and those are pictures from rome where pope francis is shortly going to be delivering hes opiate oby christmas message now he led a Midnight Mass at st peters basilica at the vatican hes blessing emphasized forgiveness not just for sin is but for the church itself ofter a difficult area in which sexual abuse scandals continue to rock the Catholic ChurchFrancis Christians to keep the faith. Think forward i he does a ritual that dates back to the 1st centuries of the Catholic Church the Midnight Mass at some pages is a spiritual gathering there the pope is said to confide the word of god to the faith. Of. All of that he may god who by the incarnation brought together the earth and the heavenly realm fill you with the gift of his peace and favor and may you share it with the church in heaven this was. For the pontiff and followers of the catholic faith it has been a trying. Scandal has reached the very top of the church in many places. So in his sermon the pope appealed for believers to maintain the faith. That yahoo may we not wait for our neighbors to be good before we do good to venom let us not wait for the church to be perfect before we love her let us begin with us so is and receive the gift of grace. Celebrating the belief of the fight for was also one of the themes of the Midnight Mass in bethlehem there pilgrims of worship is gathered at the church of the nativity. Its a site where jesus is believed to have been born but it still listen this was led by the archbishop of jerusalem in the presence of palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas any family the archbishop appealed for believe is to overcome hatred. To get through each other to build something to cater to overcome dead misunderstandings of those who do not share their desire for encounter in peace. It was an appeal for unity and for it had to be the archbishop said he hoped would result will be on the christian faithful in a region where faiths makes. And we believe to often causes conflict. Germanys president. Will urge germans to overcome their differences and respect each other as equals and hes Christmas Day interests on my own will also note the high points of 2019 most notably the 30th anniversary awful fall of a bird and wall points and anti semitic attack in october at a synagogue in the city. Looking back on the events of the past year the german president says the antisemitic attack at a synagogue in holland left a deep imprint the buildings locked or prevented even greater tragedy. Bears the traces of some 20 bullets you see the splintered wood and the metal remains in the bullet holes. This door guards the entrance to the synagogue and. On its a miracle that it held and that no more people fell victim to this brutal anti semitic attack in which 2 of our fellow citizens were murdered on the streets by the moderate for president steinmeyer visit that the location of the anti semitic attack as soon as he could. This christmas he asked germans to find hatred and defend democracy. The ball democracy needs selfassured citizens who have confidence and drive common sense and decency and to show solidarity with others. Hopes the germans can continue to find courage and optimism in the coming year so they can find the strength to create a better future. Ok for more on this im joined by data Political Correspondent kate brady kate president say it off the events that took place in 21000. 00 he reflects mostly on the attack in the city of what does that tell us and i think it really underlines the importance of this issue right now in germany of course the number of entries and over ports of anti semitic crimes has been slowly creeping up in recent years and of course the event in hollerin october which you mentioned really did shake German Society and of course under semitism is an issue that germany is still trying to address and has been trying to address for decades now and of course whenever crimes like this happen anywhere in the world that people react with a reaction of horror but of course in germany there is that added gravitas weight particular when it comes to underestimate crimes given germanys history but it was interesting too that he reflected on the door that that prevented that white supremacist from entering the synagogue and saying that this was symbolic as well of germans and he was asking germans or he will later today as germans in his speech whether they too are Strong Enough to stand up to that kind of hate yeah ok so thats a big part of what hell say in this address but what else would he talk about well one of the other big issues at hand dresses is a democracy and he calls on germans to to not take democracy for granted of course this year and 21000 we celebrated here in germany 30 years since the fall of the berlin wall which was very much brought down by a Democratic Movement as such sauces in east. And germany and of course the danger in a 30 years on west and a huge democratic shift and we saw that as well in some of the states elections in germany particularly eastern germany at the back end of the shia where the f. T. The far right f. T. Did particularly well in polls and so what we also heard from steinmeyer is that he is calling on germans to get embrace Democratic Change and if you are not satisfied with the current proceedings of things then yes we can change it but that doesnt necessarily mean that we have to feed into this the hate and particularly the far right populism that weve seen growing in recent years ok thank you thats Political Correspondent kate brady and you can watch the president christmas address in full later today on. Now 30 years ago today romanias revolution drew to a close with the execution off dictator. It was the final and bloodiest chapter in the series of revolutions in the 1989 that overthrew communism in europe that then voice is a retired military prosecutor who played a role in ending the tyranny and he shares his perspectives on that to moshes time when the revolution broke out in december 1909 was in the sick of it this barracks in togo vish to remain years hate to dictate to nicolae ceausescu and his wife elena who are on trial. A young prosecutor at the time crossexamined the couple. The. School was a dictator if you consider all the atrocities he committed and only one charge was possible crimes against humanity and theres only one punishment for that. One it. Wasnt the church as good as were executed immediately after the trial they had no chance to a pale it had little to do with the rule of law but after the short trial broadcast life the shooting in the streets stopped the death toll in romania had already reached 1000. 00 prosecuted done valena insists the summary execution was just defiant he points out the bullet holes where the chad was shot against the wall but 30 years on hes still waiting for a truly fresh start for remaining. Its time the new generation followed their feelings began to build the rule of law that young people back then gave their lives for. Through got a social. Danville in often visit the cemetery where the revolutions victims are buried most of them were under 30 teenagers students and workers many of the perpetrators have yet to be identified. For the Group Approaches to this day which for all these young people who were murdered in december 1809 there is still no justice the wounds left by romanias communist era and the bloody revolution that ended it 30 years ago a still gaping wide. Ok. He is with me now he was in romania around the time of these events have you and you just know what it was the right at that time you know i arrived just after ceausescu was executed and what i found was euphoria on the streets i arrived into a shore where the revered revolution had 1st started and people were happy they were looking towards the future they said that they wont have any more Food Shortages they wont have any more reduced heating in their homes there the actual medicine available in hospitals all those things were cut back dramatically by ceausescu because he was obsessed with paying off the National Debt the interNational Debt i should say and so if you restricted everything of course he didnt suffer another night not neither did any of the top politicians but almost everybody else did and that was also a Tipping Point and then came a very brief protestant minister in too much water yet so unit went on to to write a book and make a film about these events whats asked exactly we go back to there was a protestant reformed minister last little took a shot and he was part he was a member of the hungary minority and remaining has a very large hunger minority about one and a half 1000000 at the time at least and he used this pope it to preach against normally a dictatorship that has a very short shelf life but he had a brother who had defected to canada 2 decades earlier and he was using the media to keep his brother alive because the remaining leadership were very sensitive about criticism from the west and he eventually we have some pictures here i believe of the. Hes a canadian journalist he and another man and shockley had gone in to remain yeah and they did a secretly taped t. V. And we hear theres a piece from it now as we see on the screen and thats less of the turkish and he talks about the country and how its suffering and what a horrible dictatorship it is and it was broadcast 1st on hungary and t. V. Shortly thereafter and he got a letter saying hes fired from his job and an addiction notice also that he had until the so. Amber 15 to leave his home which was also in the church where hed be taken out and thats when people came out to protect them they surround the church and then the attack came from the military and was a bloodbath spread across the city up ahead were talking about 30 is on now how has romania changed since then. Theres democracy and this freedom of the press and the store shelves are full things like that the negative side is that theres a population going on at least 3000000 if not 4000000 or more have left romania and have gone to the west to italy spain germany england theyre working because of the low salaries there and also theres concern about corruption and i think thats the one thing that really upsets remain insta most is that there is this corruption atmosphere and. Theyre looking for politicians who are clean ok. Thank you for that. And a reminder off the top stories were following for you you are looking at live pictures from rome where pope francis is delivering his. Christmas day for blessing any are trying for the visitors to the seneca. After undergrowth to see the pontiff fundamental for a day christians around the world. Over the. Bridge now via. Radio or do you. Really. Prefer. A good trade show you need. More. Push to get beatrices crowds. To started so turning to. Each scene to change these and you watching live from berlin at the top of the next hour. Its all happening children. News from africa the world your link to exception the stories and discussions anyone will come to feed of you suffering program tonight from funny jimmy was easy to our website d w to come