Relics revered as Jesus' crib degrading fast, say church officials

Published: 2007-12-28

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The relics venerated as the crib the baby Jesus used in a Bethlehem grotto are in an alarming state of degradation, some church officials said. The remains have become so fragile that officials at Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major, where the crib is located, decided to suspend this year's annual Christmas Eve tradition when the relics are carried from the crypt beneath the main altar in a procession around the basilica and displayed in front of the altar all Christmas Day. Two of the five wooden slats are showing signs of "troublesome deterioration," Msgr. Emilio Silvestrini, a priest at the basilica, told the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire. He said Dec. 28 that "for years" they had noticed the crib's fragile condition had worsened. The small wooden boards are protected inside an elegant silver and glass cradle-shaped reliquary in a little chapel under the basilica's main altar. The relics were brought to Rome from Palestine after Pope Theodore I was elected pontiff in 642, said Bishop Franco Gualdrini, prefect of the basilica's sacristy, in an interview with Vatican Radio Dec. 28.

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