Amid protests, Vatican announces Christmas tree ceremony in St. Peter’s Square
November 21, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: The Vatican has announced that the ceremony inaugurating this year’s Christmas tree and crèche in St. Peter’s Square will take place on December 7.
The crèche hails from Grado, a town of 8,000 in northeastern Italy. The tree, from the small town of Ledro in northern Italy, is 95 feet high and 200 years old.
Residents of the town have gathered around the tree to prevent it from being cut down, MSN.com reported. A petition that gathered 50,000 signatures made a “heartfelt appeal to His Holiness to spare our Green Giant,” and instead use a tree felled by a storm.
Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, LC, the president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, countered, “The choice of this specimen was determined not only by aesthetic value but also by an ecologically responsible one, considering that the removal of the tree will ensure the natural renewal of the forest for the coming decades.”
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