A depiction of the birth of Christ, with Christ at the center btw, is now on par with kneeling to statues of Mary, offering prayers up to Mary, the pledges of FULL devotion to Mary and on and on and on it goes....
And please don't say catholics don't fully devote themselves to Mary....too many writings say otherwise.
You do understand that you’re debating a Catholic priest on the place of Mary in Christianity? A Catholic priest has many, many years of advanced study in divinity and sacred scripture. In the United States, priests must have a four-year university degree in philosophy plus an additional four to five years of graduate-level seminary formation in theology with a focus on Biblical research. A Master of Divinity is the most common degree. And that’s BEFORE THEY ARE ORDAINED! The last person in the world I would want to debate about the role of Mary is a Catholic priest.