Thousands of Christians native to Palestine and from around the world greeted the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, on Monday in Bethlehem’s Manger Square, hours before he would officiate the Mass of the Rooster in the Church of the Nativity as Christmas Day began.

Twal arrived in the city from Jerusalem on a traditional pilgrimage, with the first part under Israeli police escort and subsequently, after passing through a gate in the wall separating the two territories, guarded by the Palestinian National Authority.