St Nicholas and 'Knecht Ruprecht' . . .

Poor old St Nicholas missed out again this year. As always happens when 6th December falls on a Sunday, we hear no mention of St Nicholas whose feast day it is today.

I always think it's a bit of a shame that we don't make more of St Nicholas as they do in many other European countries. I feel Santa Claus is very much an American invention and Father Christmas, our English equivalent bears little resemblance to St Nicholas.

When we lived in Germany for a while when our children were small (yes, a long time ago!) I always enjoyed seeing the the shops full of Christmas goodies and of course the tradition of children in the family leaving their shoes out for treats from St Nicholas on 6th December is a lovely idea. What I especially liked was that it wasn't 'over the top' - probably a few sweets and a small toy.

The other difference between St Nicholas and Father Christmas is that St Nicholas would be accompanied by 'Knecht Ruprecht' carrying the goodies for the children who'd been good all year. But Knecht Ruprecht also carried a bunch of twigs to punish those children who had not been good! Can you imagine how that would go down here today? Funnily enough, it didn't seem strange to the German families we knew and all the shops would have bundles of treats for St Nicholas' Day with a miniature bunch of twigs attached.

Another 'ban the crucifix' story . . .

What a sad day for Catholics in Italy. Catholic news sites such as EWTN are reporting on the story of the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that crucifixes in public schools are a violation of freedom, and that an Italian citizen of Finnish origin should be compensated because her children had to attend school in Italy where crucifixes were displayed in classrooms.

A statement from the Italian Bishops' Conference said,

'"It ignores or neglects the multiple meaning of the crucifix, which not only is a religious symbol, but also a cultural sign," a communiqué from the conference stated. "It does not take into account the fact that, in reality, in the Italian experience, the display of the crucifix in public places is in harmony with the recognition of the principles of Catholicism as part of the historical patrimony of the Italian people, confirmed by the Concordat of 1984."

After all, as has been argued, just because a crucifix is displayed, it does not necessarily follow that it obliges a profession of faith.