Creches get fresh paint for Christmas

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

If you’re watching Mass on TV this Christmas season, you’ll have a “new view” of the “old, old story” – thanks to donations of time, talent and treasure.
Among the treasures are statues depicting the arrival of Jesus, the first Christmas gift.
A year ago, Mary, Queen of the Rosary Parish in Spencer was cleaning out its offices. Among items needing a new home were manger scene figures. According to Raymond L. Delisle, chancellor and director of communications for the Worcester Diocese, and a parishioner there, the figures came from the former St. Mary Parish. St. Mary was merged with Our Lady of the Rosary to form Mary, Queen of the Rosary in January 1994.
Mr. Delisle knew just the place for St. Mary’s creche.
He told his pastor, Father William Schipper, that the figures that the Daily TV Mass had been displaying in Mary, Mother of the Redeemer Chapel (St. Paul Cathedral’s lower church) were too small. Father Schipper donated St. Mary’s set to the cathedral for the chapel.
The creche was used in the chapel last Christmas season, but the figures needed a facelift.
Msgr. James P. Moroney, the cathedral’s rector, said he noticed that. He also saw that the creche displayed in St. Paul’s upper church needed an overhaul.
Ironically, Msgr. Moroney had purchased the St. Mary’s creche when he was stationed in Spencer years ago. Instead of him being led to the manger by a star, “This time the manger followed the star to me,” he quipped.
 St. Paul’s parishioner Kristina J. Benoit said she offered to repaint the figures.
“When I was in high school … I took some drawing classes at the art museum,” she told The Catholic Free Press. “After that I just picked it up – drawing and painting.”
She invited Mary T. Fanion, a fellow parishioner and longtime friend who’d done ceramics, to help paint the creche figures. Since Ms. Benoit is on disability and Miss Fanion is retired, they had the time.
Ms. Benoit said they started in August, working for a few hours a week on the set from Spencer. At first she thought it was the creche from the cathedral’s upper church – until she noticed that the camel was different. The women are now working on the larger set.
As they painted figures this past summer in the cathedral’s lower level, Miss Fanion was heard saying, “Well, St. Joseph, you’re getting to look a little bit better.”
“I keep talking to him, so he’ll get done,” she told The Catholic Free Press. “I’m talking to the guy upstairs … the real St. Joseph. I need help, especially where it’s so nicked.” She said the paint was covering the imperfections in the statue pretty well. (Ms. Benoit said that deeper nicks and missing parts were filled in before she and her friend started painting them.)
The two women were using acrylic paints, trying to match the original colors, and sometimes adding a touch of gold.
“I love working with the gold,” Ms. Benoit said. “I think the gold brings everything out better. It just adds to it. … I love doing it; it’s so relaxing.”
They brought their own paints and brushes and bought what they didn’t have, Ms. Benoit said. She said Msgr. Moroney “wanted to chip in,” but they didn’t take him up on it.
“God has blessed us with a gift,” she explained. “I said, … ‘It’s my contribution to the church.’ … No matter what talent you have, it’s a gift from God … as long as it’s done for the good.”
“Kris and Mary have an exceptional talent to restore the sets,” Msgr. Moroney said. “They look brand new.”
You could say these parishioners are literally preparing the way for the celebration of the birth of Jesus.