I read it on the Internet, so it must be true.
This year the Pope sent a Christmas card that illustrates the “nativity” with two birth scenes. One is of the divine birth — no midwife. The other of a human birth which illustrates a midwife.
I enjoyed Frankenoid’s commentary reflecting a maternal point of view of the Christmas story.
My mother, a nurse who spent her adult working life as a nurse in obstetrics, and had the law allowed would have certainly become a midwife, instilled in me a love of history. She also attempted to instill in me a belief in Christianity.
As a mystic I enjoy the Spirit of the Yuletide Season.
As an historian I felt compelled to share this Renaissance image, created in 1313 by the Italian artist Giotto and used this year by Pope Francis which shows Mary being “tended by midwives.”
The failure to give credit to the local midwife who almost certainly attended to the birth of Mary AND Joseph’s first born son, should be attributed to the very male dominated, and some would say misogynistic, clergy which took control of the Christian church during the critical days of its transition from cult to institution within the Roman Empire.
I find it refreshing that Pope Francis would choose a work of art for his Christmas card that reflect a more authentic view of what went down: Joseph called the midwife and got out of the way while the women did the work of women.