(ZENIT News / Rome, 03.01.2024).- Vilavenut, a village of Girona, in Catalonia, Spain, has organized a live Nativity Scene for 35 years. Some one hundred residents take part dressed as shepherds, angels and Oriental kings. However, in December 2023, the figure of Saint Joseph was lacking.
“Initially, only the children and the Child Jesus were real. Many who played Saint Joseph or the Virgin Mary, [also] played [the role of] the Child Jesus,” explained Anna Oliver, a member of the organization. Over time, the roles have been offered to those who had babies for the Nativity Scene.” So, this 2023 Aina and Tina took part, mother of a second daughter, Lola, who played the Child Jesus in the crib. It all happened when they were asked to participate, but none of the women wanted to dress as a man. The decision to do away with an historical figure of the Scene sparked intense controversy in the village and in other places.
The Vilavenut scene is a great live Nativity Scene spread around the population with detailed areas of biblical scenes. But it’s there that the figure of Saint Joseph disappears, with two “mothers of God” at the entrance. Thus the LGTBI ideology is changing history. Out of a whim or to be heightened? What is certain is that it distorts the facts, with a woman dressed in a blue tunic and white veil, and another dressed in green sitting on a chair with her daughter Lola in her arms as the Child Jesus.
In Capocastello di Mercogliano, a village near Naples, Italy, Father Vitaliano Della Sala defended the representation of Jesus’ birth in a Nativity Scene with two Mothers of the Child Jesus, instead of Mary and Joseph, commenting: “With this scene, I wanted to show that families are no longer the traditional ones (. . . ). In our parishes, we see increasingly children with new types of families, which exist and form part of our society: children of separated and divorced people, homosexual couples, single people, young mothers.”
Father Della Sala sympathises with the LGBT cause and with a Leftist vision. He assures that he works pastorally in keeping with Pope Francis’ line, who recently allowed priests to bless same-sex couples.
The inclination of some Catholics in regard to the LGTBI ideology is creating bewilderment. Senator Maurizio Gasparri, of the Forza Italia party, pointed out that this type of actions “offends all those who always had respect and devotion for the Holy Family.”
The Pro-Life and Family group labelled this Scene “dangerous, in addition to being shameful and blasphemous.” And called for the intervention of the Bishop of Avellino, pointing out that the Nativity Scene contradicts the teachings of the Church on the family, and legitimized paternity and surrogate motherhood between same-sex persons. 21,000 people have already signed a petition, which doesn’t stem from political positions but from fidelity to the Gospel and to History.
