ECR — Student: at Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus, teacher: it's not true (rediff)
Interviewed by the Press in 2018, the very cautious Archbishop Christian Lépine of Montreal said of the controversial course on ethics and religious culture (ECR): "Being neutral is impossible: we always speak from a certain point of view. The mother of an 8-year-old child told me that her teacher had asked the class what to celebrate at Christmas. The child replied "the birth of Jesus." The professor replied that this was not true, because he did not want it to be considered a fact. Respect would have been to answer "Christians believe that at Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus. 1) Christians do not believe they
are celebrating the birth of Jesus, they are celebrating it.
2) It is another thing to say that we are sure that Jesus was born on December 25 of our Gregorian calendar. In fact, the Catholic Church does not insist on the coincidence of the birth of Jesus and our calendar. Benedict XVI recalled until recently that the monk Denys the Little had probably made a mistake about the year of Jesus' birth. It doesn't matter, you can celebrate a birth on a date other than the specific anniversary date. We do it well for the Queen of England... It seems that December 25 was chosen to fall nine months later than the Anunciation (March 25). Irenaeus of Lyon (c.130-202) considered that the conception of Jesus on March 25 coincided with the date of the Passion. (By the way, the date of December 25 is probably no more a recycling of Saturnales than a Dies natalis solis invicti despite what is frequently read at that time).
3) What exactly did the professor mean by "that it is considered a fact"? That the date is not safe? No problem then. Or did he mean that the birth of Jesus is not a fact, like that cegep teacher who claimed that Jesus never existed?
are celebrating the birth of Jesus, they are celebrating it.
2) It is another thing to say that we are sure that Jesus was born on December 25 of our Gregorian calendar. In fact, the Catholic Church does not insist on the coincidence of the birth of Jesus and our calendar. Benedict XVI recalled until recently that the monk Denys the Little had probably made a mistake about the year of Jesus' birth. It doesn't matter, you can celebrate a birth on a date other than the specific anniversary date. We do it well for the Queen of England... It seems that December 25 was chosen to fall nine months later than the Anunciation (March 25). Irenaeus of Lyon (c.130-202) considered that the conception of Jesus on March 25 coincided with the date of the Passion. (By the way, the date of December 25 is probably no more a recycling of Saturnales than a Dies natalis solis invicti despite what is frequently read at that time).
3) What exactly did the professor mean by "that it is considered a fact"? That the date is not safe? No problem then. Or did he mean that the birth of Jesus is not a fact, like that cegep teacher who claimed that Jesus never existed?
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