On Christmas Eve, in a hillside hermitage in Grecchio, Italy, in the Year 1223, St. Francis of Assisi assisted at Midnight Mass and the Christmas crèche came alive. Ever since then people all over the world have displayed the stable of Bethlehem as a reminder of the miracle of the Incarnation.
-Preface to Bishop Gregory Hartmayer's Christmas message
St. Francis Church in Assisi
This year the December 15 issue of the Southern Cross carries Bishop Hartmayer's entire Christmas message in English and Spanish to 27,843 registered Catholic households in the Diocese of Savannah. The December 22 issue will round out the Southern Cross publishing year.
For the first time, Catholics Come Home ® commercials are set to air nationally on prime time television. The bi-lingual commercials are scheduled to air over 400 times during a three-week period starting December 16 through the Feast of the Epiphany, January 8, 2012.
