(Rome) At the end of the year, Pope Francis, as is customary in tradition, sought the great nativity scene in St. Peter's Square after Vespers and Te Deum. There he welcomed a number of personalities, this was a rare encounter.
The crib has been the focus of irritation and polemics in recent weeks. It is meant to present the seven bodily works of mercy this year and is a gift of the Benedictine abbey on the Montevergine in Campania. Displeasure caused a homoerotic connotation that some see in it. This is a perception reinforced by the jubilation and satisfaction of homosexual organizations. On Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day there had been femen attacks on the crib. A "sextremist", as the female militants of Femen describe themselves, who are often recruited from the Red milieu, tore the baby Jesus from the crib and threw him to the ground.
Pope Francis greeted various people around the Nativity scene, said Vatican News,. the new news platform of the Holy See, included a video with the picture. Among those welcomed by the pope was a senior church representative, who had not appeared in public for a long time, much less in the close circle of Pope Francis.
On December 31, the now 88-year-old Darío Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos appeared in St. Peter's Square. The canon lawyer was appointed Bishop of Pereira in 1976 by Pope Paul VI.. In 1982, Pope John Paul II made the appointment as Archbishop of Bucaramanga. After the Archbishop had helped to publish the new Catechism of the Catholic Church, John Paul II summoned him to Rome in 1996 and appointed him Prefect of the Congregation of Clergy. In 1998 he created him a cardinal.
In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI replaced him. at the head of the Congregation of Clergy with Cardinal Claudio Hummes, one of the most curious personnel decisions of that pontificate. From 2000 to 2009, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos was President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei for the Church's traditional communities. Since 2008 he is cardinal priest. For reasons of age, he could no longer attend the conclave of 2013.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Vatican News (Screenshots)
Image: Vatican News (Screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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