For the fifth consecutive year, a creche has been placed in front of the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The creche faces the Capitol Holiday Tree, decorated with thousands of lights and ornaments.
The creche has statues of the Holy Family and the three kings, shepherds, and a camel and other animals, and an angel holding a “Gloria in Excelsis Deo” banner above it. The figures are one-half life-size.
The creche rests on the pavement in front of the Capitol and is open on all sides so children and families can walk right up to it.
The creche has been placed by the Nativity, Holy Innocents, and Epiphany Committee, who obtained a permit from the California Highway Patrol.
The creche has been put in place for Christmas, and the December 28 feast of the Holy Innocents Procession from the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, and for Epiphany Sunday, January 8, 2023.
Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament deacon Edgar Hilbert plans to bless the creche after the Noon Sunday Christmas Mass in Spanish at the cathedral, about 200 yards away. Mass goers will be invited to join in the blessing.
The Holy Innocents Procession will start from the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament at 6 pm, on Wednesday, December 28, and go to the creche at the Capitol and then on to Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine and parish for a Mass for the Feast of the Holy Innocents.
Newsom could play Herod.
Great point, bedwere. I wish that I would have thought of that.
With this Letter, I wish to encourage the beautiful family tradition of preparing the nativity scene in the days before Christmas, but also the custom of setting it up in the workplace, in schools, hospitals, prisons and town squares.
Fifteen days before Christmas, Francis asked a local man named John to help him realize his desire “to bring to life the memory of that babe born in Bethlehem, to see as much as possible with my own bodily eyes the discomfort of his infant needs, how he lay in a manger, and how, with an ox and an ass standing by, he was laid upon a bed of hay”.[1] At this, his faithful friend went immediately to prepare all that the Saint had asked. On 25 December, friars came to Greccio from various parts, together with people from the farmsteads in the area, who brought flowers and torches to light up that holy night. When Francis arrived, he found a manger full of hay, an ox and a donkey. All those present experienced a new and indescribable joy in the presence of the Christmas scene. The priest then solemnly celebrated the Eucharist over the manger, showing the bond between the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Eucharist. At Greccio there were no statues; the nativity scene was enacted and experienced by all who were present.
Pope Francis
There’s hope for California, then. Deo gratias!
It looks like two of the figurines are wielding light sabers.
No place for Holy Innocents in California, as long as Newsom is governor.
Quick! Let’s call the ACLU and get it removed!