''Popesaurus John Paul II'' Rises In Santiago, Chile

[DeSwiss]

A Giant Pope To Watch Over Santiago?
Chileans dislike a plan to build a 40-foot-tall statue of Pope John Paul II. Some have dubbed it “Popesaurus.”

GlobalPost
By Pascale Bonnefoy
Published: October 22, 2009 06:51 ET


Daniel Cordero, the scuptor, poses besides the mold of the pope statue. which should be completely finished by February 2010
(Pascale Bonnefoy - GlobalPost)

SANTIAGO, Chile — The neighbors couldn't help but notice the huge head of Pope John Paul II rising out of the sculptor's workshop next door. Hidden behind the walls, the pope's left hand gripped Jesus on the cross while his right extended outward, an imitation of the gesture he had made during his visit to Santiago two decades earlier. But this was no private religious homage — it was the makings of a 40-foot-tall bronze statue meant to tower over a bohemian neighborhood in this capital city.

The idea of installing the statue in such a public place has sparked outrage, not only over its enormity but also over the lack of transparency in urban planning. Not even the Catholic Church supports the project. “The size of this giant statue is proportional to the lack of delicacy of those who, having money, power and influence, feel they own the city,” said Jesuit priest Felipe Berrios.

The statue was conceived by the privately owned San Sebastian University, which is headed by members of the right-wing, ultraconservative party UDI. The university is building a campus in front of a park in the Recoleta municipality. In 2007, the mayor of the municipality, Gonzalo Cornejo, decided he wanted to remodel the park. He asked his longtime friend Luis Cordero, vice chancellor of the university and founder of the UDI, to present a proposal.

The $734,000 project involves wiping out the park and its trees to build an underground parking lot, relocating a craft fair that has been there for 20 years and installing a giant pope. Currently named after a young anarchist poet who died after being arrested in the 1920s, the park is to be renamed Park Pope John Paul II.



http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/chile/091020/giant-pope-john-paul-statue">MORE

- Well, that ought to give the neighborhood children nightmares. And just in time for Halloween.......
==============================================================================
DeSwiss


http://www.atheisttoolbox.com/">The Atheist Toolbox





"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." - Groucho Marx

[moobu2]

1. How hideous

[DeSwiss]

7. that $734,000 might have been better spent....

...on a smog alert warning system.

[trotsky]

9. Or, oh, I dunno....

maybe helping the poor or sick or something?

[hlthe2b]

2. Hypocrisy knows no bounds, it seems...

Surely someone with common sense will stop this abysmal atrocity. Is there any wonder why Catholicism and religion in general, is on a downward slide? Think what that money would do for the poor surrounding this park. :eyes:

[struggle4progress]

12. ... Critics dislike they way a private university was put in charge of changing the face of a

traditional neighborhood because its friend the mayor asked it to, all in total secret. They say the plan violates urban regulations. Along with the new campus, a movie theater, a cultural center and three 19-floor apartment buildings will also be built facing the park ... http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/chile/091020/giant-pope-john-paul-statue?page=0,1

This has very little to do with religion: this is a case where the city's political elite are deciding they want to revamp a neighborhood for their own purposes, including turning a public park into a parking garage -- and they decided they could get some political cover by putting up a big statue of JPII crafted by the mayor's brother

[Dorian Gray]

3. The article claimed that the Catholic Church

didn't support the erection of the statue, that it was being built by a private Conservative Catholic University. How did the city allow this to be built there?

[CatholicEdHead]

4. The Catholic Church cited was a Jesuit Priest

hense the shrinking liberal side, but still liberal side. The money came from the local conservative parts of the Church who would be more likely to follow everything JPII did. So instead of feeding the poor, it builds a statue. I would probably say that many in Rome agree with the local conservatives and not the Jesuit cited.

[struggle4progress]

10. ... The president of the Bishops Conference, Monsignor Alejandro Goic, said he would have preferred

another type of homage: “If you ask me, the best monument would have been scholarships for smart kids from poor families to go to the university” ...

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/chile/091020/giant-pope-john-paul-statue?page=0,1

[Deep13]

5. So idolatry is now okay, I guess. nt

[juno jones]

6. It'll look really impressive being toppled in

some future revolution.

I could carve a better man out of a banana, as St. Kurt used to say.

[Christa]

8. K & R

and thanks for this laugh:




:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[charlie]

11. Colossal midgets bestride the earth

They should fix these two with lasers and flamethrowers, tour them in cage matches. If the money won't buy bread for the poor, they should at least get their circuses.