Did Pope Benedict cancel Christmas? No. In fact the Pope has never made any claims against the Christian holiday, yet several tabloids, internet news websites and bloggers attempted to make those claims on their very own following the release of the pope’s latest book The Infancy Narratives – Jesus of Nazareth.
Following the November 20 release the church discovered a tabloid running the headline:
“Killjoy pope crushes Christmas nativity traditions.”
While another tabloid ran the title:
“Pope sets out to debunk Christmas myths.”
Those type of titles went on and on until finally a new media online site ran the snarky title:
“Pope bans Christmas.”
The same type of “Pope bans Christmas” chatter also started to appear on Twitter, Facebook and other popular social networks around the world.
The problem became so bad that the Catholic social network XT3 began to spin the headlines to tell the Pope’s side of the story.
Headlines appeared after Pope Benedict made certain claims in his book, for example the gospels make “no reference” to animals being in the stables where Jesus was born. Pope Benedict also notes that Jesus was probably actually born in a cave and not in a cozy manger. What bloggers failed to acknowledge was a few sentences later when the Pope noted “No representation of the crib is complete without the ox and the ass”.
Oddly enough some bloggers who failed to do their homework also attacked the Pope for attempting to ban Christmas carols. However, the pope actually supported the caroling tradition in his book. In fact Benedict talks about how “Christianity has always understood that the speech of angels is actually song” and how “the angels’ song of praise has never gone silent”, and that it is “only natural that simple believers (even today) join in their caroling on the Holy Night”.
Other attacks against the Pope’s comments relate directly to historical facts, many of which have been verified on multiple occasions.
Sorry bloggers and tabloids but this is not the Pope who stole Christmas.