Making room for the Nativity
It’s interesting that at the Wednesday audience before Christmas, Benedict made some remarks at the end and talked with the crowd about the preparations of the Manger scene, as workers are doing in St. Peter’s Square.
In his Italian-language greetings at the end of the audience, Benedict XVI said: “In a few days it will be Christmas, and I imagine that, in your homes, you are putting the final touches to your nativity scenes, which are such an evocative depiction of Christmas. I hope that this important element, not only of our spirituality but also of our culture and art, may endure as a simple and eloquent way to remember the One Who came ‘to dwell among us’.”
Speaking of which, this important element of our spirituality, culture and art will be among the other ones at Daley Plaza in Chicago, as posted below yesterday when Hizzoner had a change of heart.
Baby Jesus is back where he belongs—under the watchful eyes of Joseph and Mary in Alice Michalik’s outdoor Nativity scene.
The Garfield Ridge resident recovered her small figurine Tuesday morning after someone had taken it over the weekend.
“I was devastated,” said Michalik, 56. “Who would take baby Jesus?”
Chicago police don’t have any answers yet on how Michalik’s figurine and 31 other representations of the Christ child ended up in the back yard of a residence in the 5900 block of South Menard Avenue.
The plastic pieces, many weathered with age, were found Saturday morning lined up and sorted by design in the yard of a parishioner of St. Symphorosa Catholic Church, who asked the church staff not to give out her name.
Strange goings on in Chicago, eh?
Rather than keep the figures as evidence, police allowed St. Symphorosa Church to return them to their owners.
“Baby Jesus belongs in a Nativity scene, not in the evidence and recovered property room,” said police spokesman Patrick Camden.
Now there’s a statement for the season.
None of the figures was disfigured or damaged, said Rev. Marcel Pasciak, pastor of St. Symphorosa. Church staffers said they didn’t know why the statues all ended up on one yard.
“It doesn’t seem to be a religious statement,” Pasciak said. “Probably just a juvenile prank.”
I don’t know…. I’m a bit suspicious that whoever was behind this wanted to make the point that the Christ Child comes to be in the manger not in the days leading up to his birth, but on Christmas. Apparently not a big deal, but it did get the media’s attention.
