#nativity

#nativity

On earth, there is no room for God if there is no room for the human person. To refuse one is to refuse the other, said the pope during the solemn service, attended by about 6,000 people inside the basilica. Leo, the first US-born pope, is celebrating his first Christmas after being elected in May by the world's cardinals to succeed the late Pope Francis.

If you need any further proof that the world has gone topsy-turvy, look no further than the theft of an icon of the baby Jesus from a nativity scene in Grand Place in the Brussels city center in late November. The nativity scene is the work of German-born artist and designer Victoria-Maria Geyer, who constructed the figures in the scene of Christ's birth not out of wood, as is traditionally done, but out of recycled textiles with faces consisting only of black and brown patchwork with no identifiable features.