According to the priest, the children already know that Santa is not real, but the Italians accused him of destroying family traditions.
Residents of Italy complained about the bishop of the Catholic Church, Antonio Stagliano, who told the children the truth about Santa Claus. The publication Corriere del mezzogiorno wrote about such a scandal.
Bishop Noto in Sicily gave a speech the day before in the Salvatore Basilica as part of the Ephemeral Arts Festival. During the event, the priests staged the arrival of Nicholas the Wonderworker on horseback, and Stagliano addressed the children about the upcoming Christmas holidays and explained why Santa Claus should not be confused with the famous Christian saint.
“No, Santa Claus does not exist. I would add that the red colour of the outfit he wears was chosen by Coca Cola solely for advertising purposes. Santa Claus does not exist, and Coca Cola (not only she) uses his image to be recognized bearer of healthy values, “the head of the diocese said.
He added that Santa Claus is not a historical person, while the image of St. Nicholas is based on a real person. Antonio Stagliano advised children to correctly perceive the fictional character in order to better spend Christmas, in particular, helping and giving gifts to peers from poor families.
“This is a way to reveal the meaning of the Christian tradition of Christmas. Otherwise, children know that Santa Claus is a dad or an uncle. So no broken dreams,” the priest emphasized.
After such words, many people on social networks accused him of destroying family traditions. As a result, the representative of the diocese of Noto Alessandro Paolino apologized to the public on behalf of the bishop on Facebook and stressed that Antonio Stagliano did not want to disappoint the kids, but pursued a completely different goal – to remind about the true, non-commercial, meaning of Christmas and about the history of St. Nicholas, who helped the poor despite persecution by the Roman emperor.
Earlier it was reported that the Norwegian postal service removed a holiday advertisement with Santa-gay in honour of the anniversary of the decriminalization of same-sex relationships. According to some viewers, the authors of the video destroyed the sacred union of the Klaus spouses in the eyes of the children.
It was also reported that in Russia the security forces beat up Christians, for whom the Ukrainians stood up. FSB, prosecutors and police officers broke into the building of a spiritual centre near Moscow and interrupted a three-day meeting of an organization that was deemed undesirable in the country.
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