Description:Pope Benedict, marking the eighth Christmas season of his pontificate, celebrated a solemn Christmas Eve mass in St Peter's Basilica, during which he appealed for a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict and an end to the civil war in Syria. At the Mass for some 10,000 in the basilica and broadcast to millions of others on television, the pope wove his homily around the theme of God's place in today's modern world.(0:43)