Rome is angry about the monument to the Pope John Paul II

Rome is angry about the monument to the Pope John Paul II

A sculpture of John Paul II, installed near the central railway station of Rome, angered the Romans, according to ansa.it.

New modernist monument to the Pope John Paul II appeared to Italians, who are famous by their delicate taste, as evident neglect of the Pope.

As noted by the Italian press, installed monument reminds both Mussolini and a character from "Star Track" series.

Termini is a main railway station of Rome, which daily receives thousands of passengers. For many of them, a monument was not a reminder of the symbolic-leader of the Roman Catholic Church, but a parody of the infamous Italian dictator.

Official Vatican publication, Osservatore Romano, also commented on the new statue. Journalists noted only a slight resemblance to the legendary Pope. But at the same time, it was Vatican, who formally gave permission to create the statue.

It is worth noting that John Paul II is considered one of the most respected religious figures of the Catholic Church of the last century. On May 1 Catholic Church beatificated John Paul II. In the ceremony in Rome took part 1.5 million pilgrims.

Anyway, the Roman authorities during 5 days since the installation of the statue receive appeals from outraged citizens, who asked to take action and decide the fate of the statue, which creates inadequate image of the cultural level of people in the capital of Italy among visitors.

Oliviero Rainaldi, author of the monument, when commented reaction of the Romans to the new sculpture, remembered winged Roman phrase "People's voice is the voice of God" and invited the people themselves to decide the fate of the monument.

Statue of John Paul II was presented in Rome for the 91th birthday of the pontiff, which was celebrated on May 18, by the fund Silvana Paolini Angelucci. Representatives of the fund declined to comment on the situation with the monument.

Ilya Kalachev

Date: 02/06/2011