Santa steals limelight from Christ at Christmas, bishop laments

A Catholic bishop expressed his dismay that "Santa Claus" is more popular during the Christmas Season than Jesus Christ, whose birth is the reason for Christmas. Retired Novaliches Bishop Teodoro Bacani Jr. said Christmas festivities nowadays are more focused on frenzied shopping for Christmas gifts rather than prayerful meditation on Christ's birth. “Ang idea nitong ating society lumalayo talaga kay Kristo under the influence of secularistic ideology (Our society now is moving further from the ideal of Christ)," Bacani said on Church-run Radio Veritas. Excerpts of the interview were posted on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news site on Thursday. Bacani noted that many communities display images of Santa Claus but not Nativity scenes with Jesus Christ, Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. “Si Santa Claus nakakatulong yan sa consumerism. Si Santa kasi ay symbol ng pagbili at pagregalo. Si Christ ay simbolo ng pag-aalay ng buhay para sa kapwa tao. E mas mabili si Santa para sa commercial," Bacani said. (Santa Claus promotes consumerism as the symbol of buying and gift-giving. Christ is the symbol of giving oneself to one's neighbors. It appears Santa is a bigger commercial hit.) He reminded the faithful that Christmas is meant to celebrate the birth of Jesus and should be kept that way. “Let us keep Christ at Christmas. Let us project Christ at Christmas. Let us project the love that God had shown us and Christ. And project it not only by Christmas carols and by our words but by our loving deeds and compassion for our fellow human beings during this Christmas time," he said. Santa Claus is Saint Nicholas, a Catholic Bishop of Myra in Lycia. His feast day is December 6, the day he died in the year 345 or 352. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving such as leaving shoes outside the door of the house of a needy person. Christmas is a Christian feast to commemorate the birth of Christ. The word for Christmas in late Old English is "Cristes Maesse," the Mass of Christ, found in documents dating back to the year 1038, the Catholic Encyclopedia said. According to the encylopedia posted on newadvent.org, the exact date of Christ's birth is being debated because this was not mentioned in the Bible. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) says: "Many things about Jesus of interest to human curiosity do not figure in the Gospels. Almost nothing is said about his hidden life at Nazareth, and even a great part of his public life is not recounted. What is written in the Gospels was set down there "so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name." (CCC, Part 1, Chapter 2, Article 3). – VVP, GMANews.TV