Despite an online petition posted to change.org in mid-October that garnered over 53,000 signatures in protest of the evergreen to be used for the Vatican Christmas tree being chopped down, the tree arrived as scheduled in St. Peter’s Square at 7 a.m. on Nov. 21, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Vatican City, Nov 21, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).
The Vatican was not rocking around the Christmas tree on Thursday after a 95-foot Norway spruce from northern Italy became wreathed in controversy this fall.
An online petition posted to change.org in mid-October garnered over 53,000 signatures in protest of the evergreen being chopped down, arguing it contradicts Pope Francis’ promotion of protection for the environment.
Despite the opposition to its removal, the tree arrived as scheduled in St. Peter’s Square at 7 a.m. on Nov. 21 but was left to lie mysteriously on the truck bed well past sunset. As of publication, the spruce has still not been placed on its base.
The petition’s open letter to Pope Francis and Vatican and local Italian officials lamented the “solely consumerist practice of using live trees for ephemeral use, for mere advertising purposes and a few ridiculous selfies.”
It drew attention to the pope’s writings on care for creation and the importance of having respect for nature.
Despite opposition to its removal, the Vatican Christmas tree arrived as scheduled in St. Peter’s Square at 7 a.m. on Nov. 21, 2024, but was left to lie mysteriously on the truck bed well past sunset. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The letter, drafted by the wildlife protection association Bearsandothers, also argued that the Christmas tree is a pagan tradition that has nothing to do with Christ’s birth.
The petition also expressed opposition to the estimated 60,000 euros (about $63,000) of expenses incurred by the city of Ledro, in northern Italy, which donated the main Norway spruce and about 40 other trees to the Vatican.
“We are asking your help,” the letter said, “to send a strong message of reflection on the importance of valuing and respecting the role of the plant world in the anthropocentric era of increasingly dramatic climate anomalies.”
The Vatican said in a September press release that the nearly 100-foot spruce for St. Peter’s Square was selected “with respect to sustainability.” The trees chosen are more mature trees, it noted, arguing that their removal is in line with natural replacement.
The tree comes from nearby the small town of Ledro, which is close to Lake Garda and Lake Ledro in one of Italy’s northernmost provinces.
Smaller trees from the same area and decorated by the citizens of Ledro, and other towns in Italy, Germany, and the Czech Republic, will also be displayed in Vatican City buildings.
According to recent Vatican custom, the Christmas tree and a large Nativity scene displayed beside it will remain in St. Peter’s Square through Jan. 12, 2025, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
The tree-lighting ceremony and unveiling of the Nativity scene are scheduled for Dec. 7.
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Vatican City, Mar 15, 2019 / 08:15 am (CNA).- Pope Francis mourned “senseless acts of violence” against innocent life after the New Zealand mosque attacks. On Friday, at least forty-nine people were killed in attacks on two mosques in the c… […]
Pope Francis addresses international diplomats to the Holy See on Jan. 9, 2023, in the Vatican’s Blessing Hall. / Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Jan 9, 2023 / 06:28 am (CNA).
The global community is engaged in a “third world war” marked by heightened fear, conflict, and risk of nuclear violence, but a recommitment to “truth, justice, solidarity and freedom” can provide a pathway to peace, Pope Francis told international diplomats Monday.
Citing the ongoing war in Ukraine, but also drawing on conflicts in places such as Syria, West Africa, Ethiopia, Israel, Myanmar, and the Korean Peninsula, the Holy Father said this global struggle is being “fought piecemeal,” but is nonetheless interconnected.
“Today the third world war is taking place in a globalized world where conflicts involve only certain areas of the planet direct, but in fact involve them all,” said Pope Francis, speaking in the Vatican’s apostolic palace.
The pope made these remarks as part of his annual address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. Pope Francis characterized this speech as “a call for peace in a world that is witnessing heightened divisions and war.”
Pope Francis addresses diplomats to the Holy See in the Blessing Hall at the Vatican on Jan. 9, 2023. Vatican Media
As part of this heightening of tensions, the Pope warned about the increased threat of nuclear warfare, drawing particular concern to the stall in negotiations for the Iran nuclear deal. He told the gathered diplomats that the possession of nuclear weapons is “immoral” and called for an end to a mentality that pursues conflict deterrence through the development of ever-more lethal means of warfare.
“There is a need to change this way of thinking and move toward an integral disarmament, since no peace is possible when instruments of death are proliferating,” the pope said.
In proposing a path towards global peace, the Holy Father drew heavily from Pacem in Terris (“Peace on Earth”), the papal encyclical promulgated by St. John XXIII in 1962. Pope Francis said the conditions which prompted the “good Pope” to issue Pacem in Terris 60 years ago bear a striking similarity to the state of the world today.
In particular, the Holy Father drew from what John XXIII described as the “four fundamental goods” necessary for peace: truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom, values that “serve as the pillars that regulate relationships between individuals and political communities alike.”
Regarding “peace in truth,” the Holy Father underscored the “primary duty” of governments to protect the right to life at every stage of human life.
“Peace requires before all else the defense of life, a good that today is jeopardized not only by conflicts, hunger, and diseases, but all too often in the mother’s womb, through promotion of an alleged ‘right to abortion,’” said Pope Francis, also calling for an end to the death penalty and violence against women.
Speaking of the necessity of religious freedom for peace, the Holy Father noted widespread religious persecution against Christian minorities, but also discrimination in countries where Christianity is a majority religion.
“Religious freedom is also endangered wherever believers see their ability to express their convictions in the life of society restricted in the name of a misguided understanding of inclusiveness,” he said.
Regarding justice, the Holy Father called for a “profound rethinking” of multilateral systems such as the United Nations to make them more effective at responding to conflicts like the war in Ukraine. But he also criticized international bodies for “imposing forms of ideological colonization, especially on poorer countries” and warned of the growing risk of “ideological totalitarianism” that promotes intolerance towards those who dissent from certain positions claimed to represent ‘progress.’”
Pope Francis visits with international diplomats accredited to the Holy See on Jan. 9, 2023, at the Vatican. Vatican Media
The Holy Father also spoke of the need to deepen a sense of global solidarity, citing four areas of interconnectedness: immigration, the economy and work, and care for creation,
“The paths of peace are paths of solidarity, for no one can be saved alone. We live in a world interconnected that, in the end, the actions of each have consequences for all.”
Finally, regarding “peace in freedom,” Pope Francis warned of the “weakening of democracy” in many parts of the world, and an increase in political polarization. He said peace is only possible if “in every single community, there does not prevail that culture of oppression and aggression in which our neighbor is regarded as an enemy to attack, rather than a brother or sister to welcome and embrace.”
The Holy Father’s address to the diplomatic corps, which includes representatives of the 91 countries and entities with an embassy chancellery accredited to the Holy See, also served as an opportunity to review diplomatic highlights of the past year and expectations for the year to come.
Milestones included the signing of new bilateral accords with both the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe and with the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Holy Father also briefly mentioned the provisional agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China, first agreed to in 2018 and renewed in 2022 for an additional two years.
“It is my hope that this collaborative relationship can increase, for the benefit of the life of the Catholic Church and that of the Chinese people.”
The next significant marker on the pope’s diplomatic docket: His trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo at the end of the month as a “pilgrim of peace,” followed by a joint visit to South Sudan with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
Pope Francis meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi / Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Jul 2, 2021 / 13:00 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis and Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi discussed the importance of protecting the Christian presence … […]
1 Comment
Not long enough ago, an office kerfuffle erupted over the routine placement of a Christmas tree in the vestibule of a middle-ranking and already-woke government office where yours truly was employed.
My Gawd! What if someone from the public walked in and was, you know, offended?
So, a series of closed front-office meetings ensued, decorated with a series of follow-up staff indoctrination sessions. Then, “if not a tree, why not a wreath?” No. “If not a wreath, why not a single red poinsettia on the small coffee table?” Horrors! But, then “maybe a white poinsettia” because, as it was pointed out from on high, “a red poinsettia was still too laden with religious meaning.” Finally, the discredited front office chipped in for a simple wreath (no decorations, and purchased from a family-related marketer of things Christmas-y!), but my Gawd, this wall-hanging was to be referred to only as a “holiday wreath” and not a Christmas wreath.
Unseen Christmas stuff was still allowed, but only in staff cubicles. A pre-Christian Egyptian obelisk is okay for the Church’s modern-world cubicle, or dhimmi, or whatever–St. Peter’s Square. But not a Christmas tree. When an earlier pope was challenged about the atmospheric impacts of jet travel, the globe-trotting Pope John Paul II responded that “it’s a good way to evangelize.” But, be careful, too, about all those devotional candles!
So, multiculturally, the Chinese proverb about all things large and small: “The flapping of the wings of a butterfly can be felt on the other side of the world.” Plant a few small trees and call it a day.
Not long enough ago, an office kerfuffle erupted over the routine placement of a Christmas tree in the vestibule of a middle-ranking and already-woke government office where yours truly was employed.
My Gawd! What if someone from the public walked in and was, you know, offended?
So, a series of closed front-office meetings ensued, decorated with a series of follow-up staff indoctrination sessions. Then, “if not a tree, why not a wreath?” No. “If not a wreath, why not a single red poinsettia on the small coffee table?” Horrors! But, then “maybe a white poinsettia” because, as it was pointed out from on high, “a red poinsettia was still too laden with religious meaning.” Finally, the discredited front office chipped in for a simple wreath (no decorations, and purchased from a family-related marketer of things Christmas-y!), but my Gawd, this wall-hanging was to be referred to only as a “holiday wreath” and not a Christmas wreath.
Unseen Christmas stuff was still allowed, but only in staff cubicles. A pre-Christian Egyptian obelisk is okay for the Church’s modern-world cubicle, or dhimmi, or whatever–St. Peter’s Square. But not a Christmas tree. When an earlier pope was challenged about the atmospheric impacts of jet travel, the globe-trotting Pope John Paul II responded that “it’s a good way to evangelize.” But, be careful, too, about all those devotional candles!
So, multiculturally, the Chinese proverb about all things large and small: “The flapping of the wings of a butterfly can be felt on the other side of the world.” Plant a few small trees and call it a day.