I guess this is A Thing this year.

Someone on Facebook posted the image above, which evidently depicts the Nativity Scene at St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Turin. You can see a more detailed video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myYk9PQnFFc


Not everybody is thrilled about it: 

Augusta Montaruli, a member of the national-conservative Brothers of Italy (FdI) and an MP for Turin, slammed the Christmas move by the Cathedral saying, “The decision to put masks on the characters of the nativity scene set up in the Cathedral of Turin lacks common sense.”

“I certainly agree with the caution and anti-contagion protection, necessary to overcome this difficult phase, but the nativity scene has the value of re-enactment, symbolically representing the birth of Jesus, and bringing back believers, to a particular atmosphere lived two thousand years ago,” Montraruli said.

Closer to home, a Florida TV station offered the report below.

I’ve posted about this previously, and I have to say: this isn’t as outrageous as some of the Nativity scenes that have gone up in the past. There’s this one, for example:

Having said that: using scenes that were originally intended to be devotional and inspirational, and making them ironic or anachronistic in an effort to be trendy or woke just strikes me as a bad idea.

The message of the Nativity scene — which was created, you’ll recall, by a deacon, Francis of Assisi — has given meaning and hope to generations across the centuries. It doesn’t need updating.

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