[WilliamJenningsBryan]

We're preoccupied with our own problems here in this country with the Godless Democrats one step away from turning our Godly country into a communist dictatorship and a "president" that is one step away from having his commission papers signed to put him into an assisted living facility. It's time for another edition of pope watch.

Is that Marxist postmodernist deconstructionism? It's a little late to be talking about art history - I can almost guarantee that the infinite peace and mercy of the Baby Jesus (it's His Birthday after all) has been taxed beyond any tolerance and is about to embarkk on a rage of vengeance of full blown destruction. Maybe that's why the CDC is telling us to stay inside over Christmas.

Vatican's 'shocking' Nativity display irks U.S. Catholics

By Christopher Vondracek - The Washington Times - Thursday, December 17, 2020

American Catholics are critiquing the creche the Vatican has put on display in St. Peter’s Square, with one commentator comparing the globular ceramics diorama to the cantina scene from “Star Wars.”

“A shocking portrayal,” Duncan Stroik, a professor at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, said in email to The Washington Times. “Not particularly evocative of the Incarnation, which much of the world celebrates this month.”

The Nativity unveiled by the Vatican last week evokes an out-of-this-world vibe, with an oval-headed Joseph, a spaceman as one of the Wise Men, an extraterrestrial Archangel Gabriel and bulky farm animals. It has mystified art critics, laypersons and some clergy alike.

“It is truly ugly. How very sad,” Deacon Keith Fournier of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, tweeted. “The Catholic Church has such beautiful art. This increasingly ugly world is hungering for beauty. Why would this be chosen?”

A host on Relevant Radio, a Catholic network, called the display “unusually modernistic.” Art historian Elizabeth Lev in America Magazine, a Jesuit publication, noted the “universal outpouring of mockery.” And The New York Post said “if it were a Broadway play, it probably would have closed on opening night.”

Seemingly on the defensive, an article posted this week to the Vatican’s official news website says the 2020 “Christmas crib” is said to hold “cultural heritage not immediately visible to the eye.” The 52-piece ceramic display was made in the style that is typical of Castelli, Italy, which is known internationally for its pottery, the article states. Students and teachers assembled the set over 10 years, from 1965 to 1975.

Regarding the “spaceman,” the Vatican says Pope Francis wrote as recently as a year ago that it is “customary” to add symbolic figures to a Nativity scene.

Not all are convinced.

Radio host Lino Rulli, on his “The Catholic Guy Show” on SiriusXM, jokingly compared the display to Darth Vader, adding that the Nativity looks like it had been cast with characters from the cantina scene in “Star Wars.”

He told The Times that the ensuing kerfuffle over the Nativity scene reveals a “snapshot” of a contemporary Roman Catholic Church that, thanks to social media, is hearing increasingly from its people in the pews.

“It’s not the end of the world,” Mr. Rulli said. “But I think it’s a reflection of more Catholics saying, ‘Hey, it’s my church, too, and I also get to say when I’m disapproving and we are going in a bad direction.’”

. . . .

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...ks-us-catholi/

[Ezekiel Bathfire]

“It is truly ugly. How very sad,” Deacon Keith Fournier of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia

It is not often I find myself partly agreeing with a Catlick and I would have preferred it if he had said, “This is no more than a blatant blasphemy and has exposed the pope’s cynical disregard for his minions' intelligence and taste."


The pope’s logic seems to be, “Hey, I’m pope and can do what I want and you have to suck it up.”

The scene seems to be made of objects from the municipal garbage dump.

[WWJDnow]

There were no turkeys in Bethlehem in the year zero. And there were no black people, either. But I suppose it's only natural for a false church like catholicism to have a false nativity display.

[MitzaLizalor]

It was a bit difficult to make out from the picture. This was about the best I could find, showing several different angles of view.

[Romeo Rovagnati]

That's quite a surprise for me. I didn't heard people comparing Catholicisim to the Empire of Star Wars since the times when Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was mistaken for Darth Vader's master.

[Unfalsifiable]

Catholics get very confused when they are angry - look at how this Catholic mother fails to deal with some basic teenage atheism - however, I guess it's much harder to convince children of a false religion.