Diocesan News

Only in Print: Christmas Traditions Altered by COVID-19 Locally and Abroad

The Nativity scene this year for St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican will include larger-than-life-sized ceramic figures from a high school in Castelli, a town in the ceramic-producing region of Teramo, northeast of Rome. Students and teachers at the F.A. Grue Institute, a high school focused on art, crafted the figures for the scene between 1965 and 1975. (Photo: CNS/courtesy F.A. Grue Institute)

WINDSOR TERRACE — Pope John XXIII once said, “Mankind is a great, an immense family … This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.” The Christmas spirit will still be alive — albeit in modified ways, due to the pandemic — thanks to how Catholic parishes and dioceses will continue their annual programming.

Around the Diocese

The Diocese of Brooklyn held its annual tree lighting at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Grand Army Plaza on Dec. 8. It was an invite-only event with 50 people in attendance adhering to health and safety guidelines…


The rest of this article can be found exclusively in the Dec. 12 printed version of The Tablet. You can buy it at church for $1, or you can receive future editions of the paper in your mailbox at a discounted rate by subscribing here. Thank you for supporting Catholic journalism.

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