PITTSBURGH -- The city has erected new signs allowing convenient parking in an area of Downtown where the world's only replica of the Christmas manger scene at the Vatican is on display.

The new signs only prohibit parking between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. weekdays on Grant Street near the U.S. Steel Plaza, usually a no-parking area at all times. Also, the signs make no reference to the creche.

Previous signs, erected by the Christian Leaders Fellowship after the Pittsburgh Police Bureau issued a waiver, said "Creche Parking" near the top and allowed 10-minute parking in the area. The signs were taken down after Jon Pushinsky, a lawyer, argued that they violated the constitutional separation of church and state.

Witold Walczak, director of the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the old signs made it appear that the city is promoting the creche. He said he has "concerns" about the new signs, but did not say if action would be pursued.

The creche controversy "seems to me an effort to remove God as much as possible from every aspect of life," said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and the Christian Leaders Fellowship, a group of 10 Pittsburgh-area Christian leaders.

City Solicitor Jacqueline Morrow said she agreed that the fellowship's signs had to be removed, but not because of any potential constitutional violation. She said only the city -- not an outside group -- can put up parking signs and enforce regulations.

City Councilman Bob O'Connor agreed with Morrow, but said the city is within its rights to put up its own signs -- without reference to the creche -- that allow parking in the area.

"I think the controversy is ridiculous," O'Connor told WTAE Action News. "This is a not only a religious symbol, it's a major attraction to the city of Pittsburgh. People are coming Downtown to see it."

There has been a history of battles over nativity scenes in Pittsburgh.

In the 1980s, the ACLU sued Allegheny County over a creche put up each year on the grand staircase at the county courthouse, and in 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the display couldn't be placed on public property. Pushinsky was one of the lawyers who worked with the ACLU on that lawsuit.