In 2014 a topless blonde, inscribed with the message “God Is Woman” and shouting anti-Catholic slogans, tried to steal the image of the Baby Jesus from the Nativity scene erected by the pope in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. The act was a protest against “the centuries-old Vatican stance on women’s rights for [their] own body and reproductive function.”
The perpetrator was a member of the international feminist provocation squad named FEMEN famous for their bare-bosomed stunts drawing attention to their opposition to various manifestations of the patriarchy. The 2014 kidnapping attempt was part of FEMEN’s anticlerical “Massacre of the Innocents” campaign, which called for the theft of Baby Jesus from crèches around the world. “The maniacal desire to control women’s fertility is a common trait of many religions, National Socialism, nationalism and other antediluvian, anti-humanist ideologies. Abortion is sacred,” said the group. Three years later the group again staged a raid on the papal nativity scene but, as in 2014, was unable to make off with the Bambino.