VATICAN (CNS): With the approach of Advent, Pope Francis gave a small fragment of Jesus’ crib back to Catholics in the Holy Land.
In Bethelehem, West Bank, Franciscan Father Rami Asakrieh of St. Catherine Church welcomed saying, “This is more blessings for this place. You can’t imagine the great joy to have this blessing.”
At the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, on November 22, experts from the Vatican Museums extracted a small fragment from the relic of what has been venerated as Jesus’ manger. The relic, given to the Vatican in the 7th century, has been kept in a chapel under the basilica’s main altar.
Pope Francis gave the relic fragment to the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, which oversees the main churches and shrines associated with the birth, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus.
The relic arrived in Jerusalem on November 29 and was present during a Mass celebrated by the nuncio, Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, apostolic nuncio to Israel and Cyprus and apostolic delegate to Jerusalem and Palestine, in the chapel of Our Lady of Peace at the Notre Dame Centre.
“May the return to Bethlehem of this piece of holy wood arouse in us the profound desire to be bearers of God. Now it is our hearts that are a manger: the holy crib of God made man,” said Archbishop Girelli at the handing-over ceremony.
Reading a letter sent by Stanislaw Cardinal Rylko, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, Archbishop Girelli said, “Pope Francis accompanies this gift with his blessing and with the fervid wish that the veneration of this illustrious relic can open the hearts of many men and women, adults and youngsters, the elderly and children, to receive with a renewed fervour of faith and love the mystery that changed the course of history.
He continued, “The Holy Father wishes, in particular, that the message of peace announced by the angels on the night of Christmas to the men loved by God, which for 2,000 years has rung out from Bethlehem, brings the gift of peace and reconciliation which our world needs more and more.”
