Catholic News Agency portal reports (December 8, 2025) that Bethlehem has resumed Christmas celebrations after a two-year suspension during the Gaza conflict, beginning with the lighting of a giant Christmas tree in Nativity Square. Bethlehem Mayor Maher Canawati justified this decision by citing economic necessity (“tourism was down to zero”) and declaring it a “light of hope,” while simultaneously acknowledging public disagreement over its appropriateness. The celebration occurred as bombs continued falling near sacred sites, with Fr. Gabriel Romanelli reporting an explosion 200 meters from Gaza’s Holy Family Church during the tree lighting ceremony. This grotesque juxtaposition exposes the complete secularization of Christmas under modernist influences.
The Profanation of Christmas as Commercial Spectacle
The article reveals the conciliar sect’s total surrender to naturalism through Mayor Canawati’s admission: “We’re all living here from tourism” – reducing the birthplace of the Word Made Flesh to an economic commodity. This echoes Pius XI’s condemnation in Quas Primas of those who “remove Jesus Christ and His most holy law from their customs, from private, family, and public life”. The tree lighting ceremony constitutes idolatrous substitution, elevating a pagan symbol above the praesepe (manger) where God assumed human flesh.
Bethlehem’s prioritization of tourism revenue over supernatural reality fulfills Pius IX’s warning in the Syllabus of Errors against those who place “the welfare of men and of nations” above divine law (Condemned Proposition 63). The mayor’s claim that “Christmas should never be stopped” blasphemously equates the Eternal Sacrifice with a seasonal festival, ignoring that true Christmas observance requires metanoia (repentance) rather than public spectacles.
Silence on Sacrilege and Ecclesial Cowardice
While detailing explosions near Holy Family Church, the article commits mortal omission by failing to:
- Denounce the sacrilegious attack on Christ’s mystical body
- Recall Pius XII’s teaching that bombed churches constitute “crimes against God Himself” (1943 Christmas Message)
- Invoke canonical penalties against aggressors of sacred spaces (1917 CIC 2332)
The neutral reporting on church bombings reflects the conciliar sect’s abandonment of extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (no salvation outside the Church). Where Leo XIII declared “the Church alone is the repository of truth” (Humanum Genus), CNA’s “balanced” journalism implicitly equates attackers and defenders through its false objectivity.
Fr. Romanelli’s understated reaction (“Thanks be to God more people weren’t harmed”) exemplifies the modernist clergy’s desensitization to sacrilege. Contrast this with the Catholic response to the Alcazar bombing (1936), where clergy led rosary crusades and public exorcisms against desecrators. The article’s clinical description of shrapnel damaging “that iconic cross” reduces the instrument of our redemption to mere architectural ornamentation.
The False Peace of Earthly Ceasefires
The article’s celebration of “recent ceasefire” as enabling Christmas festivities reveals the conciliar sect’s adoption of UN-style humanitarianism over Catholic eschatology. Pius XII condemned such false peace in his 1939 encyclical: “A peace… which is not the noble fruit of Christian peace… but simply the cessation of war” (Summi Pontificatus). True peace requires submission to Christ the King, not temporary military pauses.
The tree lighting’s timing during continued bombings unconsciously fulfills Jeremiah’s lament: “They have healed the wound of My people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace” (Jer 6:14). Bethlehem’s hollow ritual embodies the conciliar inversion of Advent – rather than preparing for Divine Judgment through penance, they offer paganized celebrations amid ongoing sacrilege.
Naturalism Displacing Supernatural Faith
The article’s focus on tourism statistics and hotel bookings exposes the conciliar sect’s materialist worldview. Contrast this with Pius XI’s teaching that “the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ” (Quas Primas). Bethlehem’s authorities reduce the Incarnation’s locus to an entertainment district, committing the very error denounced in the Syllabus: placing “the welfare of men and of nations” above divine law (Proposition 56).
Mayor Canawati’s dichotomy – “Some may say it’s not appropriate and others say it’s appropriate” – epitomizes the conciliar relativism condemned in Lamentabili Sane (Proposition 65). True shepherds would recall Pius V’s excommunication of Queen Elizabeth I for profaning sacred spaces, not poll readers seeking economic advantage.
Conclusion: Christmas Without Christ the King
This obscene spectacle of Bethlehem lighting trees while bombs fall on churches perfectly symbolizes the conciliar sect’s religion: Christ removed from Christmas, the Cross reduced to damaged artwork, and the Mass of Ages replaced with worldly assemblies. As St. Pius X warned in Pascendi, modernists “put aside tradition” to embrace “the principles of the secular state.” Until Bethlehem’s leaders publicly consecrate the city to Christ the King and demand reparations for church bombings, their celebrations remain pagan rituals unworthy of the Savior’s birthplace.
Source:
Bethlehem lights Christmas tree again while conflict still echoes nearby (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 08.12.2025