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Vatican City, Dec 9, 2016 / 11:21 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As Christmas approaches, the Nativity scenes found in churches and homes around the world bid us to make room for Jesus both in our lives and in society, Pope Francis said shortly before the lighting of the Christmas tree in St. Peter’s Square Friday.

On Dec. 9, a massive 82-foot tree from the Dolomites was lit in St. Peter’s Square, next to the nearly life-size Nativity scene, donated to the Vatican by the Archdiocese of Malta and designed by local artists.

An artist from the island of Gozo named Manwel Gretch created the sketch chosen for the Nativity, which depicts the Maltese countryside. The 17 characters in the Nativity, animals excluded, are dressed in typical Maltese clothing and holding tools and instruments.

The Nativity scenes found “in churches, in homes and in many public places are an invitation to make room in our lives and society for God, hidden in the face of so many people who are in conditions of hardship, poverty and tribulation,” the Pope said during a meeting with the artist of the scene and a delegation from Malta and Trentino.

In his speech, the Pope referred to the presence in the scene of the traditional “Cross of Malta” and typical Maltese archipelago boat, representing not only the island’s tradition, fishing and life, but also the reality faced by thousands of migrants when risking their lives to sail in makeshift boats to Italy.

Their experiences can be compared to that of the child Jesus, Francis noted, who didn’t have a place to sleep at his birth, and soon after had to flee to Egypt with his parents to escape the threat of Herod.

How many people “will visit this Nativity scene,” he said, “will be invited to rediscover the symbolic value, which is a message of fraternity, of sharing, of welcome and solidarity.”

“The Nativity scene and the tree thus form a message of hope and love, and help to create a favorable Christmas spirit to live with faith the mystery of the birth of the Redeemer,” the Pope said.

God “came to earth in simplicity and meekness. Let us be drawn, with the intention of children, in front of the manger, because that is where we understand the goodness of God and contemplate his mercy, which was made human flesh in order to soften our gaze.”

 

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Austin, Texas, Dec 9, 2016 / 11:54 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A regulation in Texas going into effect this month gives mothers and families the right to know about their child’s burial, and gives unborn babies who die the opportunity for a respectful burial – regardless of the circumstances of their death.

Kristi Hamrick, spokesperson for Americans United for Life, who helped create the model legislation for the new Texas regulations, told CNA the legislation both prevents unborn infants who died through abortion as being treated as waste, as well as helping families who lost a child through miscarriage or stillbirth to retrieve their infant's body for burial.

“This effort empowers women and informs them of their options,” she told CNA. “It does not require anything of the mothers, but it does require that the facility handle the bodies of unborn infants with the same respect we show the remains of other people who die in a medical setting.”

The new regulations, proposed earlier this year by the  Texas Department of State Health Services, will go into effect Dec. 19. Similar laws have been passed in Indiana, Louisiana, and Ohio.

The rules require that medical facilities care for remains of unborn babies with recognizable body parts who do not survive until birth. The remains of the unborn infant must now be cremated or buried, as opposed to being treated as medical waste.

The parents of the deceased unborn child must also be given the opportunity to take care of arrangements themselves – though if she does not wish to do so, a woman may consent to relinquish control of the remains to the medical facility. “No woman is required to take the body of the infant with them or to have it released to her,”  Hamrick stressed.

The new regulations do not apply to unborn persons who are passed at home.  

These new regulations stand in sharp contrast to how the remains of miscarried and aborted infants are currently treated.   

“Currently, facilities dispose of the infants, often without input from the mother,” Hamrick stated. This often makes retrieval of the baby’s body intensely difficult, particularly for families who miscarry or have a stillborn child.

“We’ve seen families who lose a child to miscarriage go through intense efforts to have the body released to them for burial,” she continued.  Hamrick noted that the new regulations actually give mothers more options than they currently have for how to treat the remains of their child, in most cases.

Jaqueline Harvey, a policy analyst and mother who attended the hearings for the regulation in Austin, Texas, says she sees a need for the new rules and thinks, at least in her case, they might encourage women to make safer medical decisions.

Harvey pointed to her own decision not to have a Dilation and Cuterage (D&C) procedure earlier this year after a miscarriage.

While the procedure would have been safer, she said she chose the more risky route of passing the baby at home because she knew her baby’s remains would be sent to pathology with the D&C procedure: “After that point you cannot retrieve the child,” she explained.

She said she also feared for what might happen to her child after it went to pathology. “The present rule in Texas is an absence of rules,” Harvey explained. “It’s much easier for them to just put the baby down the garbage disposal.”

While she respects and understands mothers who do have D&C procedures after miscarriage and realizes that her choice was risky, she said she made the decision she did in order to honor her son.

“I made the decision to give birth at home because I wanted his body to be intact,” Harvey said. “I felt like I owed it to him.”

Harvey said that while she realizes “that not everyone has the same conviction I do,” she thinks the new regulations can bring relief to families in situations like hers, as well as to the broader community.

“I think people would want to know how unborn children are treated, whether they are wanted or not.”

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IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Christmas tree and Nativity scene are symbols of God's love and hope, reminding us to contemplate the beauty of creation and welcome the marginalized, Pope Francis said.

Baby Jesus, whose parents could find no decent shelter and had to flee persecution, is a reminder of the "painful experience" of so many migrants today, he said Dec. 9, just before the Vatican Christmas tree was to be lit and its Nativity scene was to be unveiled.

Nativity scenes all over the world "are an invitation to make room in our life and society for God -- hidden in the gaze of so many people" who are living in need, poverty or suffering, he told people involved in donating the tree and creche for St. Peter's Square.

The northern Italian province of Trent donated the 82-foot-tall spruce fir, which was adorned with ceramic ornaments handmade by children receiving medical treatment at several Italian hospitals.

The 55-foot-wide Nativity scene was donated by the government and Archdiocese of Malta. It features 17 figures dressed in traditional Maltese attire as well as replica of a Maltese boat to represent the seafaring traditions of the island.

The boat also represents "the sad and tragic reality of migrants on boats headed toward Italy," the pope said in his speech in the Vatican's Paul VI hall.

"In the painful experience of these brothers and sisters, we revisit that (experience) of baby Jesus, who at the time of his birth did not find accommodation and was born in a grotto in Bethlehem and then was brought to Egypt to escape Herod's threat."

"Those who visit this creche will be invited to rediscover its symbolic value, which is a message of fraternity, sharing, welcoming and solidarity," the pope said.

The beauty of the pristine forests of northern Italy where the tree grew "is an invitation to contemplate the creator and to respect nature," he said, adding that "we are all called to approach creation with contemplative awe."

The Nativity scene and tree will remain in St. Peter's Square until the feast of the Lord's Baptism Jan. 9.

Archbishop Lauro Tisi of Trent, speaking at the tree-lighting ceremony as the sun set, told people in St. Peter's Square that the towering tree had lived decades -- decades that saw thousands of people from the region emigrate in search of work in the early 1900s. It's unconscionable, he said, that people today refuse to welcome those coming from poorer places with the same needs and dreams.

Manwel Grech, a sculptor of religious statues from Gozo, Malta, won a contest to make the Nativity scene. It was dream to create art for the Vatican and have it exhibited in the square where thousands of people from around the world will see it.

With more than a dozen statues of people and a menagerie of animals and other elements in the scene, Grech is a bit of a traditionalist: Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus are his favorites among the resin sculptures.

He wanted Mary to have a peaceful face because "when you see Jesus, you relax," he said, and he tried to give Joseph a look of pride.

Grech included several very Maltese touches in the Nativity scene: A traditional balcony decorated with a Maltese cross; a statue of St. George Preca, the country's only canonized saint; and a "luzzu," the traditional Maltese fishing boat, which also reminds people of the journeys of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea.

Between the Nativity scene and the Christmas tree, the Vatican placed the cross and chunks of the facade of the Basilica of St. Benedict in Norcia, Italy. The basilica was destroyed by an earthquake in October and dozens of other churches in central Italy crumbled or were heavily damaged. Money left at the Nativity scene by visitors will be donated to the church rebuilding effort in Norcia.

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Contributing to this story was Cindy Wooden at the Vatican.

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