The environmental protection association WWF is opposed to the removal of the silver fir planned by the municipality of Rosello in the Apennine region of Abruzzo on the grounds that the forest area is under EU protection. The silver fir, which was donated to the Pope by Abruzzo but actually grows in the neighboring region of Molise, is considered a rare species. After the environmentalists alerted the forest management, it was decided to suspend the felling work until permission was obtained from the Molise region , since the fir is a tree species that is subject to strict environmental regulations. The pope is now threatening not to receive a fir tree for St. Peter’s Square, which was to be illuminated for the first time during a festive ceremony in early December.
The first to advocate for the tree was the lawyer and nature photographer Dario Rapino, who geographically located the fir and clearly stated that it belongs to the Molise region and not to Abruzzo and therefore does not have a permit for its felling. Two years ago, when it was decided that Abruzzo would donate the fir tree to the Holy Father, Rapino wrote a letter to Pope Francis. “I asked him to intervene to ensure that a centuries-old tree, with all its importance to the ecosystem, is not cut down. But I’m still waiting for his answer.”
It’s not the first time that the Christmas tree that adorns St. Peter’s Square has been at the center of a controversy. In 1989, when John Paul II was Pope, Austrian environmentalists protested against the felling of a 32 meter tall spruce from Kopfing (Schärding district) to decorate St. Peter’s Square in Rome that year. Despite protests from the Nature Conservation Union, the spruce was sent on a semitrailer to Rome. In 2006, during Joseph Ratzinger’s pontificate, the WWF made an appeal to the southern Italian region of Calabria, which donated the fir tree for St. Peter’s Square that year.
The traditional consecration of the nativity scene and the lighting of the Christmas tree takes place on December 3rd in St. Peter’s Square. The ceremony will be presided over by Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, President of the Vatican Governorate. In the morning of the same day, delegations from Sutrio, Rosello and Guatemala will be received by Pope Francis for the official presentation of the gifts.
This year the nativity scene for St. Peter’s Square will be supplied by the municipality of Sutrio in the Friulian province of Udine. The nativity scene, which was built according to Carnic tradition, will be placed in St. Peter’s Square in early December, according to the Vatican. The Sutrio nativity scene is made entirely of wood with a hemisphere serving as a grotto in which the Holy Family is represented, around which life-size figures are placed. The cedar wood statues were carved by hand.
Source: Nachrichten
