“Modernist” manger installed in Vatican

The Vatican Christmas crib this year caused a wave of outrage. Photo: churchmilitant.com

On the evening of December 11, 2020, a solemn lighting on a 30-meter spruce and opening of the Nativity scene took place in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican.

Pope Francis called these traditional Christmas trappings "special signs of hope and faith for the Romans and all of the pilgrims who are going to come to St. Peter's Square."

However, the Nativity scene installed in the Vatican, reproducing the scene of the birth of Jesus Christ, caused a wave of criticism and mockery, according to Church Militant resource.

The Nativity scene, which was made in the Italian city of Castelli, the center of ceramic craft, is described on social networks and the media as “modernist”, “brutalist” and a “drastic break with Tradition”, and also that it is a sign of the compromised Catholicism of Pope Francis.

The image of the nursery with the Baby Jesus is associated with a rocket and an astronaut, the figures of other characters (a total of 54 figures were made by Castelli's craftsmen) are compared to pagan sculptures.

“This year's crib scene is not something anyone could pray in front of, however: it is anti-devotional. We can only hope it will quickly be forgotten,” the publication quotes a commentary of the British art historian Joseph Shaw.

We will remind, earlier Pope Francis urged to pray that robots "can always serve humanity."

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