The Christmas tree in St. Peter’s Square, a practice started by John Paul II and now a firm tradition, was lit last Friday evening.
The 30.5-meter (100-foot) spruce, with its 2,500 ornaments, came from the Ukrainian region of the Zakarpattia. Several thousand people watched as the lights were turned on by a small Ukrainian boy dressed in his country’s national costume.
Bishops from the Catholic and Orthodox bishops from Ukraine were present at the event.
Those attending included His Beatitude Svioatoslav Schevchuck, archbishop major of Kyiv-Halyc; archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki of Lviv of the Latins; eparch Milan Sasik of Mukachevo, and representatives of the Orthodox Church led by the archbishop of Poltava and Myrhorod.
“The Christmas tree offered today to the Holy Father is the symbol of the unity of Christmas peace and of Ukraine,” said His Beatitude Svioatoslav Schevchuck, but also a “symbol of devotion and union to the Successor of Peter, Pope Benedict XVI.”
It is a symbol of the “collaboration between the Catholic and Orthodox Church of Ukraine represented by our Orthodox brothers and by ourselves, present in this ancient Square of St. Peter,” he added.
For his part, Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki stressed that the gift coincides with the 20th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union and with the 10th anniversary of John Paul II’s visit to the country.
VATICAN CITY, DEC. 19, 2011 (Zenit.org)