Christmas Season: Let's keep Christ in our Christmas celebrations
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
7 Dec 2003
Newcomers to Australia often notice how many Christian churches are spread over our cities and countryside. They also notice that the great Christian feasts of Christmas and Easter are public holidays.
People coming from Europe, the Americas or Africa are used to seeing Christian churches and like many Australians tend to take such facts for granted.
However serious Christians, not just those who belong to the various Christian tribes, Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant also notice something else. Much of the decorations and celebrations for Christmas or Easter have little to do with the Christian story.
Our society is happily multicultural. We get on with one another pretty well, and we must work to treat everyone with justice and civility. But 70 per cent of Australians describe themselves as Christian and it seems proper that Christian symbols are visible and Christian pageants performed publicly at these times of good will.
Seventeen per cent of Australians follow no religion but Christmas decorations should be no more offensive to them than rugby union advertising is to followers of other codes, and less offensive than a lot of crude and suggestive advertising is to people of all persuasions.
It is often people with no religious enthusiasms, rather than people of other faiths, who object to Christmas and Easter decorations, or secularise them with bland expressions of good will, “Season’s Greetings” rather than Christmas good wishes.
Why is it that many Christians have become timid about public expressions of their faith? It is something of a mystery. We all date the calendar from the time Christ was born (even if the calculations are out somewhat). Christians add B.C. (before Christ) for e.g. when Moses was born and A.D. (anno Domini, the year of the Lord) for any time after Christ’s death. It is traditional and easy. Yet I have known Catholic institutions to insist on C.E. and B.C.E., referring to the Common Era!
To a large extent the media and higher education are dominated by people with little or no religion. A few are anti-religious, even anti-Christian, and they have a right to their views. Some want to confine Christian religious expression to private living, but it is imperative that Christians resist this. Christianity has public consequences; most of them more important than Christmas decorations, but these are useful, appropriate and non-offensive too.
Nativity plays are appropriate in Australian schools and preschools. For those who do not believe, and wish to attend or participate, they are beautiful expressions of altruism, beautiful “myths” at the core of Western life. Christmas trees are appropriate in our shopping centres and squares.
Nor should active Christians rely on politicians and journalists who no longer believe, but love the Christmas story, to defend the celebration of Christmas in our public life and public places. It is first of all a Christian task to keep Christ in the Christmas (and Easter) celebrations.
