CLAREMONT - Baby Jesus is lying in a manger inside a cage, wrapped in an emergency foil blanket and separated from Mary and Joseph, who are each trapped in cells of their own.
This is the startling nativity scene created by a Protestant church in California to draw attention to the plight of migrants.
"We put them in different cages, as a symbol representing our community, and all immigrants, who are being held in detention centers and need our help," Genaro Cordoba, co-creator of the installation and spokesman for Claremont United Methodist Church, told AFP.
"Jesus, Joseph, Mary represent all our immigrants, all the refugees, not just in the United States but all over the world," he said, switching from Spanish to English.
"We have seen how they suffer, and people don't want them, and (in) our country the same thing," Cordoba added.
Karen Clark Ristine, senior minister at the church about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, explained in a Facebook message accompanying the images that the Holy Family were "the most well-known refugee family in the world."
"Shortly after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary were forced to flee with their young son from Nazareth to Egypt to escape King Herod, a tyrant," she wrote.
"They feared persecution and death. What if this family sought refuge in our country today?"
The grim Nativity scene appears to address that question.
Each cell is lined with barbed wire, and both Mary and Joseph are pictured facing the infant, their arms outstretched in hope and desperation.
"Imagine Joseph and Mary separated at the border and Jesus no older than two taken from his mother and placed behind the fences of a Border Patrol detention center as more than 5,500 children have been the past three years," wrote Ristine.
A Trump administration "zero tolerance" policy launched in 2018 saw thousands of children separated from their parents at the border, a tactic apparently meant to frighten the families, before the government backed down.
Migrants including children were held in caged enclosures.
"Jesus grew up to teach us kindness and mercy and a radical welcome of all people," said Ristine.
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Agence France-Presse
VATICAN CITY - The traditional nativity scene in St. Peter's Square won't be so traditional this year. For the first time, it is made of sand - 720 tons of it.
For the past 2 weeks, Rich Varano, a professional sand artist, has been guiding 3 sculptors from the Netherlands, Russia and the Czech Republic, to craft the work, which measures about 5.5 meters high by 16 meters wide (18 feet high by 52 feet wide).
Varano, 60, the artistic director of the massive work, doesn't mind if you call him "Mr Sandman." Sand is his life and love. The American from Florida divides his time between the United States and Italy.
"It's very special to be making one here in a place with so much history, so much culture, so much art and in the shadow of such masters," he told Reuters on Thursday as his team worked quietly to finish ahead of Friday's unveiling to the public.
"It is an incredibly humbling experience to be here," he said.
Heavy trucks brought the sand, of a type particularly suited for sculpting, from the northern Italian seaside city of Jesolo, near Venice, in mid-November.
It was compacted into a large rectangle and the artists started sculpting away from the top down with tools including sticks, trowels, and even dental utensils for the finer parts.
"What separates us professionals and the average person playing on the beach is that we understand how to make sand stick together well," the white-bearded Varano said, wearing a yellow hard hat.
The scene consists of Joseph, Mary, the infant Jesus, angels, shepherds, animals and the 3 wise men, kings the Bible says followed a star in the east that led them to Bethlehem.
Varano said beach sand is not suitable, partly because it is not very compactable. The sand is taken from more inland areas and is similar to river sand.
A large overhead canopy will protect the scene from any heavy rain and plastic curtains will be lowered in case of storms or strong winds before it is dismantled in January.
"It's an ephemeral art in the sense that it is not intended to last forever," he said, "even though we could make it last indefinitely if we wanted to".
Varano said he expected some criticism from conservatives who think nativity scenes should be made up of traditional statues.
"I would not be surprised if there were some people who had concerns, but there are so many more who will enjoy it and that makes me happy," he said.
Once the Christmas season is over, it will be returned there and used for other sand sculptures.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
