WITH just over a month to go before Christmas, Pope Benedict has
declared that the presence of animals like cattle and donkeys in
traditional Nativity scenes is based on little more than a myth.
As churches and families around the world prepare to dust off
their Nativity figures for the festive season, Benedict writes
in a new book on Christ that, contrary to popular belief, Jesus'
birth was not presided over by oxen, asses, camels or indeed any
other beasts. "There is no mention of animals in the Gospels,"
he wrote in the third and last volume of his biography of Jesus
Christ, which, like the previous two books, is expected to
become an international bestseller, with an initial print run of
a million copies. The inclusion of domestic animals in the
Nativity scene may have been inspired by pre-Christian
traditions, Pope Benedict wrote. But children around the world
need not be too disappointed – the German pontiff said that the
tradition of donkeys or oxen beside the manger was so deeply
entrenched that it wo