Setting The Record Straight

Everyone says that Christmas trees had formerly been a pagan practice? Actually German Catholics created the custom about only three hundred years ago. Christmas itself was made a holiday by Catholics in 325AD.  Did Christmas used to be illegal because it was Catholic?  Yes, for centuries the British culture persecuted those who observed Christmas customs as Papists. This continued even in the USA. The War on Christmas is more than four centuries old and was far worse in the past. The ongoing secularization of the holiday (Holy Day!!) has made Christmas more acceptable today. Survey the Christmas cards for sale. Reindeer and Nutcrackers abound, but the Christ Child cannot be found.

Change of pace. This is a Christmas-time sharing  of thoughts music, and stories from Chuck Coughlin to the treasurable listeners of breadboxmedia.com .  Want a Christmas spirit recharge? Try Chuck’s Catholic Christmas story, “Cow Music.”.

“Wayfarer”. The word literally means someone who travels on foot. Listen to a Christmas story about a mischievous young man who is expelled from Berea college in Kentucky during the Christmas break. He sets out on foot. It is snowing. His life is shattered. He is ashamed, miserable, and not sure where to go. His wandering takes him to a place where he  finds  the broken  is now unbroken.

This is our uncomfortable and ignored history. In the British Colonial Empire there was widespread abuse of Catholics. This commonly  included slavery, ethnic and religious cleansing, and even the kidnapping of young Irish Catholic girls to “provide solace for slaveholders”. Incredibly most of the immigrants to the thirteen colonies in the 17th century were white Irish slaves. This widespread abuse in the colonies of Catholics because they were Catholics by the British Theocracy continued for centuries. In the French Canadian colonies an entire population of free Catholics were deported on crowded ships and suffered a 60% mortality rate. Many of the surviving were sold into slavery. Christmas was declared “too Papist” and declared illegal for centuries. Why don’t we recall all this. Perhaps it became impolite to speak of it until now.