“Why Don't You Put the Circumcision Back on the Calendar?”

From the Facebook page of TV2000, the television channel of the Italian Episcopal Conference, comes this video of a brief encounter between an elderly Jewish man and the Pope during His Holiness’ recent visit to the principal synagogue of Rome.

"Listen, since you are a great rebuilder, why don’t put you the Circumcision back on the Calendar, as it was when I was a little boy? It’s a good idea, no? In that way, it would be for us, we are (interrupted.)... Well, very simpatico *, we’re all very fond of you."

Visita di Papa Francesco alla Sinagoga di Roma
Un simpatico incontro all'esterno della Sinagoga e una richiesta particolare rivolta al Santo Padre.
Posted by Tv2000 on Sunday, January 17, 2016

Good question.

The Circumcision of Christ, as depicted in the Menologion of Basil II, ca. 1000 A.D. The feast of the Circumcision is still kept in the Byzantine Rite, and in the post-conciliar reformed versions of the Ambrosian and Mozarabic liturgies.

* simpatico - a famously difficult-to-translate Italian word, broadly indicating a person or thing that is found pleasing or congenial.