Belgian police is investigating the theft of an infant Jesus figure from a Christmas Nativity scene in Brussels.
The controversial faceless Jesus figure has been stolen from a Christmas crib on Grand Place.
The icon has been at the centre of a brewing national scandal, on account of the Nativity scene’s design, which presents the faces of Mary, Joseph, Jesus and the doting Wise Men as patchworks of cloth without distinct facial features. The assorted stable animals, by contrast, were granted noses, eyes, and ears.
The controversial design replaced a Nativity scene that had been used for the past 25 years with the organiser of the Christmas market, Brussels Major Events, saying it was time for a “rethink.”
The new scene put forward by the German artist Victoria-Maria Geyer was chosen and approved by the local Catholic Church and the City of Brussels. Geyer, a practicing Catholic, said she created the featureless cloth figures in the hope that “every Catholic, regardless of their background or origins can identify themselves” in the Biblical story. Such universalism, however, prompted a backlash.
Geyer said she hoped to craft an inclusive version of the Christmas tradition which left “free rein for everyone’s imagination”.
The installation in central Brussels has come under fire online since opening on Friday, with right-wing Belgian politician Georges-Louis Bouchez even comparing the figures to “zombies”.
As debate swirled on social media, the baby Jesus, represented by his fabric head, disappeared from the Christmas cot on Saturday, prompting the authorities to replace the figure and tighten security.
A petition launched by Bouchez on the day of the theft to replace the manger by Christmas 2026 at the latest garnered more than 33,000 signatures in three days, according to a spokesman for the politician.
Bouchez, who leads the French-speaking Reformist Movement (MR) party, called the scene “nonsense and an insult to our traditions”. After visiting the Grand Place, the tourist hotspot where the nativity scene is on display, Brussels resident Arlette Coppoy agreed.
“It’s a disgrace,” Coppoy told AFPTV.
“For me, in Catholicism, Jesus was born in a manger. He wasn’t born in a tent with faceless parents, with nothing.”
(Picture Courtesy: AFP)
