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“It seems impossible to be able to invent a secular celebration of Christmas, without any religious reference. On the contrary, it is already a reality”, declares Archbishop Fernando Sebastián Aguilar, archbishop of Pamplona-Tudela and vice-president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, in a pastoral letter published on 13 December, commenting on the widespread “secular” attitude to Christmas. The archbishop refers in particular to what is happening in Spanish school classrooms: “At school they no longer sing the ‘villancicos’ (Christmas carols) he points out because there are twenty children who are not Christians”. “It is the obligation of a non-confessional State to respect and support the religious expressions of its citizens, without causing any offence to anyone, by virtue of the sacred right to the religious freedom of each”, he explains. In this sense Msgr. Aguilar suggests that “Christian children celebrate their Christian festivity at school, leaving non-Christians to participate if they want or to stay at home” and acting in such a way “that Moslem children celebrate their festivity on a different day, and describe and explain its meaning to their Christian companions”. The archbishop asks: “what kind of pluralism it is if it prevents each person from living according to his/her own beliefs?” “The State is there to serve society, not the other way round he declares -. And school is for children, not children for school. Or is that not so?” The archbishop is also critical of those Christians who celebrate Christmas “in a secular way”: “The Christmas holidays are a succession of presents, dinners, travel and parties. Families reunite, which is a very good thing; friends reunite, that too is commendable. But people don’t go to Mass, they don’t pray, they don’t render thanksgiving to God. There is no gesture, not even a single word, that invites us to live Christmas in a religious spirit. Is it conceivable he asks that the first inventors of the secular Christmas were we Christians ourselves?” “In an open and pluralist world, each must affirm his own identity with clarity and without conflict, suggests Msgr. Aguilar, who adds: “Now’s not the time to dilute our Christianity, but to affirm it and live it with serenity and joy”.
