Rockefeller Center Christmas in New York shirt

November 30, 2023

When different Western European pagan cultures were evangelized to, the Rockefeller Center Christmas in New York shirt (the traditional Catholic order of missionaries) tried to be mindful of not needlessly erasing new disciples’ culture. These disciples only needed to abandon the sinful parts of their culture, to follow Christ. Unfortunately, some of these parts slipped through, effectively syncretizing Catholicism somewhat with these pagan religions—hence, veneration culture; undue fixation on Mary the mother of Jesus; etc. However, the intent at least was always to keep from putting unnecessary burdens on new disciples’ backs. These evangelizers were looking out for those they were taking under their wing. In that sense, these peoples’ cultures were actually preserved: at least far more than they would have been, were their newly Christian-identifying constituents required to make themselves Hebrew and Greco–Roman. So no, these festivals were not “hijacked.” It is merely that masses of people who had once celebrated them decided not to observe them, or their religions comprising them; and decided to celebrate other things, with the guidance and consideration of their disciplers.

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