The nativity set installed in the Valencian neighborhood of Benimaclet by the Brotherhood of the Holy Christ will remain with a photograph of the baby Jesus after the image was stolen twice this year.
Both the brotherhood and the parish priest have asked for respect and greater surveillance in the area because it is the third time that they have suffered the theft of the baby Jesus, since last year they also took him from a nativity scene that they have only been setting up for two years for the enjoyment of the children and families of the neighborhood, as explained by the president of the brotherhood to EFE, Paco Cuenca.
The nativity scene was installed uncovered and after the first robbery they covered it with boards that they remove and place every day, but they removed one of the boards to take the image and left a caricature with the word “eviction”, but without the ax inserted, according to the parish priest José Antonio Varela Ferrandis, who considers that they are “uneducated people who lack education and respect for freedom of expression.”
Varela Ferrandis has requested to install a surveillance camera to prevent more robberies and that will serve, in his words, “so that they have a little fear since they are not ashamed.”
According to the president of the brotherhood, after last year’s theft, the Valencia City Council offered its help to replace it, but now they are no longer going to put the image of the baby Jesus back, which will be replaced by a photograph.
They have reported the theft but find it “almost impossible” to find out who the perpetrators are, who act “with nocturnality and treachery” and leave the birth without the image of the child in the nativity scene, which every afternoon reunites the children with their families to spend some time and take photos with the composition.