Visit a Nativity scene in Franciscan church, receive an indulgence

Eight hundred years ago, St. Francis of Assisi created the first Nativity scene in a cave in Greccio, Italy, gathering animals and people from the town to reenact the birth of Christ.

It is a moment that lives on in Nativity scenes in churches, homes and public places around the world.

This year, in recognition of the 800th anniversary, Catholics who pray before Nativity scene in a church or chapel entrusted to the pastoral care of members of the Franciscan community, can receive a plenary indulgence, according to an October decree from the Holy See.

An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment one deserves for one’s sins. To obtain an indulgence, Catholics must not only pray before a Nativity scene in a Franciscan church or chapel; they must meet the usual conditions for obtaining an indulgence, including praying for the pope’s intentions, receiving the sacrament of reconciliation and attending Mass and receiving Communion. 

The indulgence is available from Dec. 8, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, to the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Feb. 2.

Franciscan parishes and shrines are putting the word out.

Conventual Franciscan Brother Augustine Kelly, guardian of the Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe at Marytown in Libertyville, said Marytown has two Nativity sets up, one in the chapel and one outdoors, and both have information about the plenary indulgence.

The scenes invoke the spirit of Greccio, Brother Augustine said.

“It comes directly from the spirit of St. Francis, from his tremendous love for the child Jesus,” Brother Augustine said. “He was so enamored and so overwhelmed that Jesus would come to take on the poverty and the weakness of the human race in order to save humanity. … It touches all of our human hearts to realize that Jesus, the almighty God, wanted to come that close to us.” 

“I think this tradition has lasted because it’s an accessible part of our belief in God,” said Franciscan Father Michael Fowler, pastor of St. Peter’s in the Loop, 110 W. Madison St. “As Catholics, we believe Jesus is truly human and truly God. In many other religions, God’s up there somewhere, not here. … This is a very concrete, in the flesh representation of God. Sometimes we forget Jesus was born a human being like us, and he went through everything we do except sin. I’m sure that as a baby, he was crying, he needed to be changed, he needed to fed.”

In the past, Fowler said, St. Peter’s has set up its Nativity just a day or two before Christmas, and taken it down after the feast of the Baptism of the Lord in January. This year, the parish expects to have the scene in place about a week before Christmas, and it will remain up until the feast of the Presentation.

The scene also will move from the back of the church, where it was set up over several pews, to the front of the church, both to make it easier for people to sit in the pews and pray and to keep the pews in the back accessible, which has become an issue as more people have been coming to the church in recent months.

Mary, Mother of God Parish on the North Side is staffed by Conventual Franciscans, and it will have signs explaining the plenary indulgence and how to obtain it at its three churches: St. Ita, 5500 N. Broadway Ave.; St. Thomas of Canterbury, 4827 N. Kenmore Ave.; and St. Gregory the Great, 5545 N. Paulina St., once the Nativity scenes are set up just before Christmas.

The parish already has hosted a roundtable discussion about the Nativity scene at Greccio led by Conventual Franciscan Father Alejandro Lopez, the pastor.

The Nativity scene, Lopez wrote in a reflection, makes people slow down to take everything in.

“Love cannot be given or received from a drive-through window. Love takes time; it cannot be rushed. And St. Francis understood this,” Lopez wrote. “Which is why he decided in the year 1223 in the town of Greccio to set up a manger and celebrate Mass in a cave. He wanted everyone to slow down and contemplate the Great Mystery of the Incarnation. To allow the simplicity, the poverty and the humility of God in the person of the Son to move us to love. To love God, for loving us so much, and love our neighbor.”

Conventual Franciscan Father Thomas Fetz, associate pastor, said his mother very much loved the tradition, giving each of her children and godchildren Nativity sets, building them gradually by buying a new figure each year.

Having those figures helps make the Incarnation real to people, Fetz said.

“It makes it so that it’s not just a story,” Fetz said. “The whole point of the Nativity story is that God became physical, God became one of us. A Nativity scene allows us to go back in time and touch Jesus, touch Christ, in a way that telling the story doesn’t.”

Fetz said that parish staff and clergy will continue to talk about and encourage reflection on the Nativity scene through the rest of Advent and the Christmas season.