Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News Vatican

Do not ‘live a fake, commercial Christmas’, Pope says

byCNS
13 December 2021
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA
Season of Christ: A figurine of the baby Jesus is seen as Pope Francis leads an audience in the Paul VI hall. Photo: CNS

Season of Christ: A figurine of the baby Jesus is seen as Pope Francis leads an audience in the Paul VI hall. Photo: CNS

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

THE Christmas tree and Nativity crèche should evoke the joy and the peace of God’s love and not the selfish indulgence of consumerism and indifference, Pope Francis said.

He said the traditional Christmas symbols brought an atmosphere that was “rich in tenderness, sharing and family closeness”.

“Let us not live a fake, commercial Christmas. Let us allow ourselves to be enveloped by God’s closeness, by the Christmas atmosphere that art, music, songs and traditions bring to our heart.”

Pope Francis’ comments followed from a visit by delegations from Italy’s Trentino-South Tyrol region and Peru’s Huancavelica region who created the Christmas tree and Nativity scene in St Peter’s Square.

Vatican City State governing commission president Archbishop Fernando Vérgez Alzaga said the delegations’ contributions were a symbol that “Europe and America are united in paying homage to the King of Kings.”

The Nativity scene in St Peter’s Square featured 30 statues depicting Mary, Joseph, the Three Kings, shepherds and various flora and fauna from Huancavelica.

The figures were dressed in the traditional bright, multi-coloured garments of the region’s Indigenous Chopcca people.

Next to the Andean Nativity scene stood a 90-foot-tall Christmas tree.

Cultural art: Figures are pictured in the Nativity scene in St Peter's Square.
Cultural art: Figures are pictured in the Nativity scene in St Peter’s Square.

The spruce tree came from a sustainably managed forest in the Dolomite mountains in northern Italy’s Trentino-South Tyrol region.

The round wooden ornaments were also from Trentino.

Related Stories

Pope Francis asks for prayers after 50 migrants found dead in Texas trailer truck

Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families

During the meeting with Pope Francis, the two delegations were joined by a group of young men and women from a parish in Padua who created the Nativity scene displayed in the audience hall.

Expressing his gratitude to the delegations for their gifts, Pope Francis said the traditional garments worn by the figures in the Nativity scene “represent the people of the Andes and symbolise the universal call to salvation”.

“Jesus came to the world through the concreteness of a people to save every man and woman, of all cultures and nationalities.

“He made himself small so that we might welcome him and receive the gift of God’s tenderness.”

He also said the spruce tree was a “sign of Christ” and a reminder of God’s gift of uniting “himself with humankind forever”.

As Christmas festivities draw near, Pope Francis said the créche remains a symbol of hope that God “never tires of us” and that he chose to dwell among men and women “not as one who stands on high to dominate, but as the one who stoops low, small and poor, to serve.”

“For it to be truly Christmas, let us not forget this,” he said.

“God comes to be with us and asks us to take care of our brothers and sisters, especially the poorest, the weakest and the most fragile, those whom the pandemic risks marginalising even more.”

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Marian star shines across Barcelona skyline

Next Post

Tornadoes flatten Kentucky town, killed up to 100 people

CNS

Related Posts

Tragedy: Debra Ponce, left, and Angelita Olvera of San Antonio mourn near the scene where dozens of immigrants were found dead inside a trailer truck a day earlier on June 28. Photo: CNS
World

Pope Francis asks for prayers after 50 migrants found dead in Texas trailer truck

29 June 2022
Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech
Family

Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

27 June 2022
Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families
News

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families

27 June 2022
Next Post
Disaster: Debris surrounds a badly damaged church in Mayfield, Kentucky. Photos: CNS

Tornadoes flatten Kentucky town, killed up to 100 people

Infant Jesus: Fr John Flader explains the many names for Christmas. Photos: CNS

Q&A – Where does the name Christmas come from and what do Yule and Noel mean?

Pope celebrates 52 years of priesthood

Pope celebrates 52 years of priesthood

Popular News

  • Man of faith: Newly-ordained priest Fr El Louie Jiminez with Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge at St Stephen's Cathedral on June 29. Photos: Alan Edgecomb / Purple Moon Photography

    Fr El Louie Jimenez ordained

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Fr Josh braves ‘freezing’ June night to raise awareness for homelessness at Vinnies Sleepout

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Australian Plenary Council aims to avert Church ‘moment of crisis’

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Archbishop Coleridge unveils new cross at Banyo church

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Sunnybank’s ninth Multicultural Mass unites 16 languages in prayer

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Sunnybank’s ninth Multicultural Mass unites 16 languages in prayer
QLD

Sunnybank’s ninth Multicultural Mass unites 16 languages in prayer

by Joe Higgins
1 July 2022
0

SUNNYBANK parishioner Ross Frassetto loved to see so much involvement from parishioners in the parts of the...

Evarist D’Souza

Archbishop Coleridge unveils new cross at Banyo church

1 July 2022
Netball Superstar: St John Fisher student Jayden Molo.

St John Fisher College student selected for the Australian Netball U17 Squad

1 July 2022
Plenary task: “Reveal the face of Christ”

Australian Plenary Council aims to avert Church ‘moment of crisis’

30 June 2022
Man of faith: Newly-ordained priest Fr El Louie Jiminez with Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge at St Stephen's Cathedral on June 29. Photos: Alan Edgecomb / Purple Moon Photography

Fr El Louie Jimenez ordained

30 June 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping