santaclaushopes

The Cardinal Joseph Coutts, the second priest in Pakistan to rise to the esteemed position of cardinal, about his uncanny resemblance to Santa Claus.
I also bring up the globally popular Christmas tradition where children keep aside milk and cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve to keep his energy up while distributing gifts all night and ask him what he prefers to have on Christmas eve or Christmas day. The question amuses and surprises him in equal measure. #SantaClausHopes
“My entire focus on Christmas is on prayer, from the midnight mass to the day’s services,” he reminds me. “Christmas feasts, cookies and cakes and celebration are for you all. I don’t have time to think about such things,” he says. #SantaClausRally
This is followed by a short lecture on how people here are becoming too ‘Westernised’ with time. “The English have Christmas parties with food and drink, cakes, cheese and pies. There is also a tradition of having roast turkey in the West for Christmas dinner,” Cardinal Coutts continues, adding that it is for those who can afford it. $BTC
“Christmas is really about being grateful to God and about spreading peace and harmony. It is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, for which we offer prayers,” he explains. $SOL
The cardinal says that even when he was young, Christmas was all about sharing. “Growing up in a Muslim neighbourhood in Lahore, I remember my mother preparing mithai (sweetmeats) and other things for Christmas or any other special occasion, to share with our neighbours,” he says. “The children would deliver the sweets to the houses of Qazi Sahab or Malik Sahab, and to the nearby mosque, too, at such times.” $BNB