On Friday the 8thDecember, on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Br. Ignacio Ceja, OFM, Vicar General of the Order, participated in the inauguration of the “100 Nativity Scenes at the Vatican” exhibition, located under the left arcade of the Colonnade of Bernini, in St. Peter's Square. Some of the others who participated in the event were His Excellency Rino Fisichella, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, the Ambassador of Italy to the Holy See, H.E. Francesco Di Nitto and the Mayor of Greccio, Emiliano Fabi. The 2023 edition of the exhibition intends to celebrate the memory of the 800 years of the Greccio Nativity Scene, the first depiction of the Nativity, which Saint Francis made in the town a few kilometers from Rieti at Christmas 1223.
The opening ceremony was accompanied by the children's choir of the “A. Malfatti”, of the Municipality of Greccio, and by the musical band of the Vatican Gendarmerie Corps.
In this exhibition, more than 140 nativity scenes are displayed, coming from 22 countries around the world: Italy, Croatia, Spain, San Marino, Ukraine, Ireland, Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Germany, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Russia, United States, Colombia, Taiwan, Venezuela, Philippines, Guatemala and Paraguay.
The exhibition will be open to visitors until Sunday the 7th January 2024, every day from 10.00 to 19.30.
On Saturday the 9thDecember, the Holy Father welcomed the Delegations that donated the Nativity scene and the Christmas tree that this year decorate St. Peter's Square in the Hall of Paul VI.
Addressing the delegation from Rieti (Province of the city of Greccio), Pope Francis said: "The Nativity Scene set up in St. Peter's Square aims to recall, after eight hundred years, the Christmas atmosphere of the year 1223 in the Reatina Valley, where St. Francis paused . […] This year, therefore, from St. Peter's Square we will think of Greccio, which in turn refers us to Bethlehem. And while we contemplate Jesus, God made man, small, poor, defenseless, we cannot help but think of the drama that the inhabitants of the Holy Land are experiencing, demonstrating to these brothers and sisters of ours, especially to children and their parents, our closeness and our spiritual support. In front of every Nativity Scene, even those made in our homes, we relive what happened in Bethlehem more than two thousand years ago; and this should awaken in us the nostalgia for silence and prayer, in our often so hectic daily life. Silence, to be able to listen to what Jesus tells us from that singular "chair" which is the manger; Prayer, to express the grateful amazement, the tenderness, perhaps the tears that the Nativity scene arouses in us. And in all this Mary is our model: she says nothing, but she contemplates and adores."
In the afternoon the Nativity Scene was inaugurated by Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, president of the Governorate of the Vatican City State.
