GREETINGS OF THE HOLY FATHER
TO THE DELEGATIONS WHO DONATED THIS YEAR’S
CHRISTMAS TREE AND NATIVITY SCENE IN SAINT PETER'S SQUARE

Paul VI Audience Hall
Thursday, 5 December 2019

Dear brothers and sisters!

I am pleased to welcome you on the day in which the nativity scene and the Christmas tree in Saint Peter’s Square are being presented, bound together by the common memory of last autumn’s storm that devastated many areas in the Triveneto. I greet you all, starting with my brother bishops, whom I thank for their words. I express my deep gratitude to the civil authorities, who have supported the gift of these two Christmas religious symbols. They express the affection of the people of the provinces of Trento, Vicenza and Treviso, in particular of some areas located in the territories of the Dioceses of Trento, Padua and Vittorio Veneto.

Today’s meeting gives me the opportunity to renew my encouragement to your people, who suffered a devastating natural disaster last year with the destruction of entire wooded areas. These are events that alarm us, they are warning signs that creation sends us, and that ask us to take immediate, effective decisions for the protection of our common home.

Tonight the lights that adorn the tree will be switched on. It will remain next to the nativity scene until the end of the Christmas holidays, and both will be admired by many pilgrims from all over the world. Thank you, dear friends, for these gifts, and also for the smaller trees destined for other areas of the Vatican. I was pleased to hear that 40 firs will be replanted in place of the plants removed, in order to replenish the forests that were seriously damaged by the storm of 2018. The spruce you wished to donate represents a sign of hope, especially for your forests, so that they may be cleaned up as soon as possible to enable the reforestation work to begin.

Made almost entirely of wood and composed of architectural elements that are characteristic of the Trentino tradition, the nativity scene will help visitors enjoy the spiritual richness of the Nativity of the Lord. The wooden trunks from the storm affected areas, which serve as a backdrop to the landscape, underline the precariousness in which the Holy Family found itself on that night in Bethlehem. The artistic nativity scene of Conegliano, located in the Paul VI Hall, will also help us contemplate the humble grotto where the Saviour was born.

As you know, a few days ago I was in Greccio to visit the place where Saint Francis created the first nativity scene. There I published a Letter on the Nativity scene, which is a simple and wonderful sign of our faith and must not be lost: indeed, it is good that it is handed down from parents to children, from grandparents to grandchildren. It is a genuine way of communicating the Gospel, in a world that sometimes seems to be afraid to remember what Christmas really is, and that erases the Christian signs, keeping only trivial and commercial images.

Dear friends, I wholeheartedly wish that you, your fellow citizens and all the inhabitants of your regions, will spend the Nativity of the Lord in serenity and fraternity. May the Virgin Mary, who welcomed the Son of God into the weakness of human nature, help us to contemplate Him in the face of those who suffer, and may she support us in our commitment to be in solidarity with the weakest and most fragile people. I offer you my heartfelt blessing, and I ask you to please pray for me. Thank you!