BRIDGEPORT — As you drove on I-95 during the Christmas season, you passed an array of billboards for casinos, colleges, hospitals and restaurants … and then like the Star of Bethlehem in a dark night, a billboard appeared with the Christ Child, his arms outstretched to Fairfield County, with the message, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS!”
For the past 17 years, the billboard, proclaiming the true meaning of Christmas, has been sponsored by the parishioners of St. Mary Church in Bridgeport. The annual tradition began early in the new millennium, when it was more acceptable to say, “Happy holidays” than “Merry Christmas,” and the true meaning of the season was being sanitized by a secular society.
And as part of another tradition, right before concluding the Christmas Vigil Mass this year, the congregation sang “Happy Birthday” to Jesus in Spanish.
“The billboard is a sign for St. Mary’s, and people love it,” said Fr. Rolando Torres, pastor. “It reminds us that Christmas is about Christ, and that we have to keep Christ in Christmas. With all the material things that people look for, with the gifts and the parties, they can forget the real meaning.”
He said that among the phone calls the parish received about the billboard, one person said, “Thank you for doing this because you changed my life.”
Sonia Rodriguez, who has been a parishioner since she came to America from Puerto Rico in 1964, said, “The billboard with the Christ Child stops people in the rush-rush of the holiday and reminds them the birth of Jesus is not so much about going out and buying gifts.You have to stop and remember that we are celebrating Christmas because of what Jesus did for us.”
Sonia, who recently retired as full-time parish administrative assistant after 42 years, said it even inspired her to make changes in her personal life.
“It made me more aware that when I put up my Christmas tree, it is about the birth of Jesus,” she said. “So when I put Santa Claus out there for my children — and now my grandchildren — I have a Nativity scene next to him. I even started calling him St. Nicolas.”
The Happy Birthday, Jesus project began in 2004.
“At that time, it seems everyone was more concerned with everything except the meaning of Christmas,” she said. “They were saying ‘Happy holidays’ and ‘Season’s greetings’ because they didn’t want to offend people, and Msgr. Matthew Bernelli and the Parish Council decided that it was time to tell everyone the true meaning of Christmas, so we decided to put the billboard up.”
The parish began a mission to keep Christ in Christmas so people would remember “Jesus is the Reason for the Season,” she said.
Monsignor first had the inspiration to do something when he was driving back from visiting his family in New York.
“He got stirred up and said we have to let the public know,” she recalled. “He also started telling people to buy Christmas cards that had Nativity scenes and pictures related to the birth of Jesus. He even gave all the children 9-inch plates, and they were supposed to make a Nativity scene. Then, they were displayed in the church.”
When he came up with the idea for the billboard, he urged parishioners to do their part, and the project was presented as a Christmas gift to Jesus. The first year, 2004, was very successful and the parish collected more money than it needed — enough, in fact, to hold over some for the following year.
“We always had enough to put half of it toward the next year, so that we would be able to do it again,” Sonia said. The COVID pandemic presented a bit of a challenge, but the parish was still able to raise enough to pay for the $5,500 billboard and have something left over. The billboard goes up after Thanksgiving and stays there until the beginning of January.
Those first years, the parish received positive feedback … and some complaints.
“We got our share of calls from people trying to knock down Christmas,” she recalled. “We didn’t argue with them.We just heard them out and let them think what they wanted to think. But we still kept doing what was right. We don’t get negative feedback anymore, only positive, and every year we get calls from people thanking us for putting it up.”
She added that since they started, more billboards have appeared that proclaim the true meaning of Christmas, and she believes St. Mary’s inspired others to join the cause.
A recent parish bulletin announcement thanked all those who contributed to the project and said the collection brought in $6,219 from 104 families, with donations ranging from $5 to as much as $200.
“Thanks to all who helped,” it said. “The Baby Jesus must be very happy that we have announced his birth to all of Connecticut and to those who stopped by to visit.”
Father Torres said he has supported the project ever since he began as pastor in 2015. When his appointment was announced, someone said to him, “You need to take down that billboard.”
He was unaware of it, but when he finally saw the billboard, he thought, “Why should it be taken down? It is Baby Jesus, and Christ is the meaning of Christmas.”
“I am so grateful to work with this beautiful community that is so energetic,” he said. “We are not rich, that’s for sure, but we have a heart, and most of the people who come here to St. Mary are hard-working people in construction, restaurants and cleaning, who give so much to the church.”
He expressed his thanks to them and to Bishop Frank J. Caggiano, who recently appointed him to six more years as pastor, he said.
His primary mission is “to keep Christ as the center of our church.”
The tabernacle was moved back to the middle of the sanctuary, and there is a Blessed Sacrament Chapel that is always open for people to pray in front of the Eucharistic Christ.
By Joe Pisani
