It is two hundred years old. It is 30 meters high. And his name is “Green Giant”. It is one of the towering firs in Lentro, a village of 600 inhabitants in the Trento region in the north.
Unfortunately for him, he was chosen to decorate St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, in view of the . The business of cutting and transporting it will cost 60,000 euros.
The signatures to save the fir tree
At least 50,000 Italians have signed a petition to save the fir tree, appealing to , asking him to refuse Leandro’s gift, and to make a highly symbolic move to protect the environment, which is so affected by climate change.
But is it Christmas without a tree? ask the advocates of cutting down the fir. Among them is the head of the community of Leandro, Renato Giraldi, who told the Italian press that if it does not go to the Pope, the tree will go to the sawmill, because it falls under the management of the forests of the valley of Leandro, which is done according to forestry regulations of the European Union.
It is only a tree and it is a gift to the Holy Father, says the community leader, why so much anger for a tree? Why do they want to ruin so many people’s holidays?
The friends of the Green Giant do not raise a conversation. They say, let the Pontiff come to the Ledro Valley – Pope Francis has repeatedly stood up for the protection of the environment and blasted climate change deniers – to admire the fir trees at an altitude of 1200 meters.
The “Useless Sacrifice”
Why should he see a cut fir tree from his window? After all, decorating the tree is a pagan custom, it has nothing to do with the Christian religion. For “a useless sacrifice” of a wonderful tree for purely advertising reasons and for some ridiculous selfies, the most dynamic defenders of the fir are talking.
The gift of a fir tree to the pontiff is a tradition that began in 1982, during the days of Polish Pope John Paul II, to whom a Polish farmer sent a fir tree “straight from Poland”. And that tree was a gift, but it acquired political significance, because in then communist Poland, martial law had been imposed.
The Poles, first with the “Solidarity” trade union of Lech Walesa, had begun to claim democracy and the Catholic Church was banned.
Since then, every year, in the run-up to Christmas, a region or a country in Europe sends a fir tree as a gift to the Pope.
The Vatican has not taken a side in the confrontation. It is therefore not known if, and when, the Green Giant will arrive in St. Peter’s Square. It is certain that thousands of letters have already arrived – and will continue to arrive – at the Vatican in which the defenders of nature ask the Pope to listen to their request.
And let some not be quick to accuse them of a lack of environmental sensitivity for using paper for the letters: this particular paper is from recycled materials and the choice of the activists is targeted: the Holy Father does not have and does not read e-mail.
