Neapolitan Nativity Scenes: Syncretism Masquerading as Tradition
Catholic News Agency portal reports (December 28, 2025) on Giovanni Giudice’s preservation of Neapolitan Nativity scenes featuring “grotesque” masked theater characters and profane figures alongside the Holy Family, claiming a 300-year tradition originating from Bourbon nobility’s artistic competitions. The article emphasizes cultural preservation while describing “purification” rituals involving water to separate “profane” and sacred elements.
Profanation of the Divine Mystery Through Naturalistic Additions
The inclusion of “fish vendors,” “cheese sellers,” and the masked Pulcinella character constitutes a radical desacralization of the Incarnation narrative. Pope Pius XI’s Quas Primas (1925) emphasizes that Christ’s reign demands “religious reverence” in all matters pertaining to divine worship. The reduction of the Nativity to a “competition of who made the most beautiful” scene (as admitted in the article) exposes the bourgeois mentality condemned in Pius XI’s Divini Redemptoris: “When God and Jesus Christ are removed from customs… human society collapses.”
Pagan Elements Disguised as Folk Piety
The so-called “purification through water” between profane and sacred sections finds no basis in Catholic tradition. This echoes pagan ritual cleansing practices, constituting religious syncretism condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili Sane (1907) as “adapting dogma to philosophies.” The article’s description of the “Gobbo Scio Scio” beggar figure as a “good luck charm” confirms this superstitious dimension – a direct violation of the First Commandment. Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors (1864) explicitly condemns those who claim “pagan cults contain elements of true religion” (Proposition 16).
Historicism Over Theological Fidelity
The Neapolitan tradition’s 18th-century aristocratic origins reveal its human-centered nature. As Pius XII warned in Mediator Dei (1947): “Arbitrary innovations tending to minimize the sacred character of liturgy must be eliminated.” The grotesque facial features described as “full of history” prioritize folk aesthetics over the sensus fidei, transforming the Nativity into anthropological exhibition rather than supernatural mystery. This aligns with Modernist “evolution of dogma” condemned in St. Pius X’s Pascendi Dominici Gregis.
Omission of the Nativity’s Eschatological Dimension
Nowhere does the article mention the eternal significance of Christ’s birth as articulated in Quas Primas: “The Kingdom of our Savior seemed to shine with a new light… when we enrolled confessors and virgins among the Saints.” The reduction to “everyday life” scenes ignores Pius XI’s teaching that Christ’s reign transforms human society rather than accommodating itself to worldly customs. This naturalistic vision contradicts the Church’s perennial understanding of the Nativity as the inbreaking of divine grace into fallen humanity.
Source:
Italian family preserves 300-year tradition of handmade Nativity scenes (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 28.12.2025