Vatican newspaper criticizes new sculpture of John Paul

(May 20, 2011) The Vatican’s newspaper has criticized a giant new modernist sculpture that portrays Pope John Paul II, saying the bronze work outside Rome's main train station doesn't even look like the late pontiff. Friday’s edition of L'Osservatore Romano said that far from depicting the hugely popular pope in a welcoming gesture with an open cloak, the 4-meter tall statue gives the impression of a ‘violent gash’ such as by a bomb. Rome mayor, Gianni Alemanno and the Pope’s Vicar for Rome diocese, Cardinal Agostino Vallini inaugurated the massive 4-meter tall bronze sculpture at Piazza dei Cinquecento, near Rome’s main Terminus station, on Wednesday, May 18, John Paul’s 91^st birth anniversary. The Polish Pope was declared Blessed by Pope Benedict XVI on May 1. The artist, Oliviero Rainaldi, depicts the late pontiff as if he is opening his cloak in an expressive and symbolic gesture to receive the faithful of Rome and the world. Instead, the Vatican newspaper said, what we face in the square is a ‘violent gash, like from a bomb, that makes the cloak look almost like a sentry box topped by the head of the Pope that is too round.” “The sculpture, however, is flawed by not being easily recognizable,” the Vatican newspaper said, adding, “To those coming out of the station it seems in fact a huge vague monument rather than an immediate and unmistakable homage to John Paul II.”