After protests from environmental activists, Pope Francis has to settle for a significantly younger Christmas tree. The plan was actually to decorate St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican with a 200-year-old silver fir tree from the Apennines. But instead, a specimen from a tree nursery now adorns the Christian epicenter. It is not the first time that the papal Christmas tree has been the center of attention.
The head of the Catholic Church, who only recently returned from Bahrain (see video above), did not expect Christmas peace this year. Environmentalists had successfully protested against the felling of a pine tree from an EU protected forest area, now a younger tree is coming.
The silver fir, originally intended for the Pope, is 32 meters high and is considered a rare species. After the environmentalists warned the forest management, it was decided to suspend the felling because it is a tree subject to strict environmental requirements. regulations, as reported by Italian media.
The pine tree felled for the Vatican is “only” 62 years old and 26 meters high. The tree has to be felled anyway because it grew too close to a building. “No tree is taken from a protected forest,” a spokesperson for the Abruzzo region assured.
protests as early as 1989
It is not the first time that the Christmas tree on St. Peter’s Square has been the center of attention. In 1989, when John Paul II was pope, Austrian environmentalists protested against the felling of a 32-meter spruce in the Schärding district, which was to decorate St. Peter’s Square that year. Despite protests from the Nature Conservation Association, the spruce was sent to Rome on a trailer.
The traditional inauguration of the nativity scene and the lighting of the Christmas tree takes place on December 3 in St. Peter’s Square. The ceremony will be presided over by Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga.
Source: Krone
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