{"id":334256,"date":"2020-12-01T06:06:53","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T20:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=334256"},"modified":"2020-12-01T06:06:53","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T20:06:53","slug":"no-nino-this-year-due-to-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/no-nino-this-year-due-to-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"No Ni\u00f1o this year due to COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Catholic Church\u2019s tradition of bringing the statue of the Child Christ into homes during the holidays will not take place this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Bishop Ryan P. Jimenez of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa informed the public last Nov. 28 that the traditional practice of bringing the image of Baby Jesus, locally called Ni\u00f1o, into homes will be canceled due to COVID-19, with churches around the islands practicing safety measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally regret that our practice of bringing the images of the Child Jesus to homes this year cannot be undertaken for the sake of safety, but I urge all to be flexible and full of faith,\u201d he said on the diocese\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Every year for Christmas, New Year\u2019s Day, the Feast of the Holy Family, and Three Kings, Catholics have a tradition of waiting to welcome the Ni\u00f1o into their homes after attending church, to signify welcoming the blessings and graces of the Prince of Peace.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jimenez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Ni\u00f1o usually visits either on Christmas Day, the Feast of the Holy Family (the Sunday after Christmas), Three Kings (Jan. 6), or New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

People usually also make an offering for the Church at the time of the Ni\u00f1o visitation. This year, without the visit, \u201cI humbly suggest you make your offering when you visit Ni\u00f1o during the Sundays of Advent and Christmas,\u201d said Jimenez.<\/p>\n

Jimenez is thankful that churches have been able to reopen, but with restrictions. Churchgoers have also been obedient in following all the protocols in church. Jimenez is grateful to all who have \u201ccarefully, lovingly, and expertly\u201d helped all of us to comply with the requirements set down for the churches. This includes the pastors, workers, and all faithful people who deserve thanks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat relieves me quite a lot because, as your servant-leader, your bishop, I would not have to become a kind of enforcer for the government safety plans or a voice which gets rejected,\u201d said Jimenez.<\/p>\n

Jimenez said that these are \u201cextraordinary times\u201d of human suffering and concern, that everyone is dealing with the effects of the pandemic in different ways. \u201cWe are aware that the economy has fallen here, especially since so much of it depends on tourism. Some of us, thankfully, have become more sensitive to the suffering around us,\u201d he said, \u201c[helping] to raise our social sensitivity about the value of life beyond ourselves and our families to include a wider community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMay all of us stay sensitive to our personal and community suffering this Advent, but receive and celebrate the blessings of virtuous holiness in our midst, staying flexible and with our hearts fixed on God\u2019s will and uncompromised love for us,\u201d said Jimenez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Catholic Church\u2019s tradition of bringing the statue of the Child Christ into homes during…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":334310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-334256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}