VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square has hosted some unorthodox nativity scenes over the years, but this season’s entry appears to have come from outer space.
The futuristic pottery nursery school, which includes an astronaut and a character reminiscent of Star Wars Darth Vader, has received so much terrible criticism that, if it were a Broadway play, it would probably have closed the opening night.
Some social media users, perhaps in line with the dominant mood of 2020, described it as worrying or lacking in calm.
Others were more biting.
“What have they created in the name of sane Christianity in Vatican Square,” AA Michelangelo tweeted. “… The words (are) inappropriate for this horrible creation that must come from the planet Zog.”
Mary, Joseph, the three kings and the shepherds look like cubic chess figures and the animals are square and squat.
The Vatican uses a different crib each year, usually donated by cities or artists.
This year’s largest modernist exhibition, which has appeared in several venues, was held by students and teachers in Castelli, an Italian city famous for ceramics, between 1965 and 1975.
Traditionally, Italians add a new character to represent a current event.
The cribs of the Vatican have included a broken ship representing the situation of the refugees and a person visiting an inmate in a prison cell, which symbolizes charity. Last year it was sculpted from 720 tons of beach sand.
The astronaut represents the lunar landings of the late 1960s and early 1970s, according to a description for visitors.
A person on social media responded by posting an image showing this figure planting a Vatican flag on the moon. Another showed Darth Vader asking for directions to St. Peter’s Square.
Among the few unqualified fans on the scene was American Lino Rulli, who hosts “The Catholic Guy,” a weekday radio show in Minnesota. “I don’t know what I like best: the space or the Star Wars Cantina guy. I really want a small one for our house “, he tweeted.
For others closer to home, the Vatican City’s de facto municipal government’s decision to use it in late 2020 every year was especially annoying.
“With this global pandemic and everything else, the Christian people, or anyone else, was expecting a sign of rebirth,” said Alfredo Chiarelli, 65, who has been selling religious items in the square for 30 years.
“It has confused and saddened a lot of people,” he told Reuters.
Reports by Philip Pullella; edited by John Stonestreet