PHOTOS: Vatican Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony 2022

The outdoor nativity scene is made of life-sized figures hand carved out of alpine cedar trees from Italy’s northeasternmost region, Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

Vatican nativity scene 2022. Daniel Ibanez/CNA

The scene includes a wooden grotto with an ox, donkey, angel, Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus. The wooden figures will also have tradesmen and tradeswomen typical of the area where the nativity was made, a shepherdess, and a family and children.

Vatican nativity scene 2022. Daniel Ibanez/CNA

The Vatican has placed a nativity scene in front of St. Peter’s Basilica for the Christmas season since the 1980s. For about a decade, the Vatican has asked different countries or Italian regions to lend the nativity to be displayed. In 2021, the scene came from Peru.

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This year the Vatican is also displaying an indoor nativity scene donated by the government of Guatemala inside the Paul VI Hall, where Pope Francis receives many audiences in December.

Pope Francis spent time in silent prayer in front of a nativity scene handmade by artisan craftsmen in Guatemala on Dec. 3, 2022. Photo courtesy of the Embassy of Guatemala to the Holy See

The Holy Family and three angels were handmade by Guatemalan artisans in the local tradition using large golden crowns for the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph.

Pope Francis spent time in silent prayer in front of the nativity scene set up in Paul VI Hall on Saturday morning ahead of the ceremony.

In an audience with delegations from the communities that donated the nativity scenes and the Christmas tree, the pope said that the Christmas tree with its lights is a reminder of Jesus who “comes to illuminate our darkness, our existence often shrouded in the shadow of sin, fear, pain.”

The lights on the Vatican's nearly 100-foot Christmas tree were lit on Dec. 3, 2022. Daniel Ibanez/CNA

“Yes, God loves us so much that he shares our humanity and our lives. He never leaves us alone; He is by our side in every circumstance, in joy as in sorrow. Even in the worst of times, He is there, because He is the Emmanuel, the God with us, the light that illuminates the darkness and the tender presence that accompanies us on our journey,” Pope Francis said.

Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.