This Is Your Church

Source: Creative Commons 

For the American Audiences: I will be calling the sport known as "soccer" with another word: Football

I'm rather shocked nobody else has spoken against this, but here it's is: 

Every four years, there is the world football cup. And every four years, the Parish Church of St. Gabriel the Archangel in Tacuba, Mexico City, is witness to a particularly irreverent expression of Mexican creativity the new evangelization. 

An image of the Child Jesus is dressed in the apparel of the National Football Team. A green T-shirt, white football shoes, a football and even a Mexican flag are dumped into the statue, and exposed to the masses. Many of them think this will finally help them to win the world cup. I beg to differ. 

Writers don't seem to agree as to when this "tradition" started. Some quote the year 1970. During those times a new cleric arrived. P. José Reyes Chaparro ordered the confection of the statue while on a mission to repair the church. 

Others place the date in 1986. Both dates are likely in my opinion, because the World Cup was hosted by my country during those years. 

According to the lefebvrist Mexican blogger Jesus Batista, they used to dress the statue with the uniform of the winning Liguilla team. This stopped, however, when the winner was Toluca FC (the "diablos rojos" - red devils). 

Reyes Chaparro said that the idea could be a "hook" for people who normally don't care about religion to come to the church an pray. 

While some conservative souls have objected to this practice, the novus ordo church has not stopped this tradition, despite the fact that this  activity is very well known in Mexico and they have the means to stop it. 

This is not to attack the poor souls who genuinely think this is respectful with Baby Jesus. This is just another example of how the new religion trivializes religion in a poor attempt to please people.