What?
The Pope's new book* is now out and he's telling us there were no animals at Christ's birth. Born in a stable, laid in a manger without animals, huh? " And she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger..." Where was the manger, in the hotel lobby? When the shepherds showed up what did they have with them? Goat cheese? No animals? My
ass - er, donkey! I suppose Mary and Joseph took the bus to Bethlehem then?
I think someone better stick to playing the piano in his spare time.
No animals at Christ's birth!
Next he'll be saying Vatican II wasn't a rupture in Catholic tradition.
Yeah. So.
. . .
This is really what happened that first Christmas... you'll notice the animals were all over the place:
The extraordinary account of animal behaviour that first Christmas.
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Although it is not recorded in the Bible, the story of how the lesser beasts behaved at the birth of the Infant Jesus has been handed down through generation upon generation in the animal kingdom, and the stories have varied little no matter what country one finds oneself in. Humans only know the story from their pets, the cats and dogs many people consider members of their family. Of course animal behaviourists like to claim that the animals' stories had been adapted from watching their masters set up a creche in their homes, and that they overheard the tale while the family piously read the Christmas story to children.
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Perhaps - but I tend to doubt it, for why would, say a wolf in the forest know the exact same story? Or a country field mouse collect fir needles to festoon his nest with every Christmas Eve, and bring out the pine nuts he had stored up, only to be enjoyed for the twelve days of Christmas? In fact, it is the mice and rabbits who seem to have the most accurate stories of all. Of course the cats never forget a detail, therefore they deserve a great deal of credit as well. The dogs know the story, and tell it to their pups, but otherwise they don't talk about it much, they prefer to lay by the hearth and simply ponder the story quietly. - Finish reading here
*Anything to sell books, huh Papa Fundamentalist? O Sola Scriptura?
"There is no mention of animals in the Gospels,"** he wrote in the third and last
volume of his biography of Jesus Christ, which like the previous two books is
expected to become an international best-seller, with an initial print run of a
million copies. - CNA
**There's no mention of a lot of stuff in the Gospel.
Photo
source. I'm thinking he wrote that just because they won't let him have a kitty in the Vatican. It's sooooo passive aggressive. Sheesh!
Children the world over - send your protests to the Holy Father at this address:
His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI
Apostolic Palace
00120 Vatican
City
