Word: monsignor
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Three years ago, Manzu was reproved by the Pope for modeling crucifixions in which all the figures were shown nude. Though his new figures were fully clothed, some Vatican officials still raised objections. "The idea of putting a woman [St. Joan] in an armored suit," huffed one elderly monsignor, "may be nice for the cinema but not for St. Peter...
...show had been organized for Rome's Holy Year by Monsignor Celso Costantini, Vatican Secretary for the Propagation of the Faith, and himself for twelve years an apostolic delegate in China. Under his direction, the Church's missionaries had collected what they could from churches in their own mission districts, commissioned some works, and accepted a great many more from native artists who had heard of the project and wished to be represented. The Vatican hopes to keep the show together after Holy Year ends, exhibit it next year in Paris and Manhattan...
...Monsignor Costantini, all that seems right and proper. European artists, too, had often represented the saints as being of their own race, place and period. The Buddhist goddess Kuan Yin, he explains, had many of the same virtues that Christians revere in the Madonna: purity, motherhood and the understanding of sorrows. He also approved of Hindu representations of Christ that looked like the god Siva, "because Siva is a highly spirtualized deity. But we do object to Christ being represented in the guise of Buddha, since Buddha is worshiped...
...show, but a few found it bewildering. Looking at a red-lacquered altar from Japan, a woman from Germany exclaimed: "I just couldn't pray properly before such a thing!" Since a Japanese might have equal difficulty at a Gothic altar rail, the objection pretty well illustrated Monsignor Costantini's point: that native art may serve faith better than the alien kind...
...Little Hitch. A thunderous applause greeted the bishop. To show that there was no prejudice, tall, dark Monsignor Alibio Ruina announced that the Communist mayor of Bolsena, the little town nearby where the miracle had occurred, would be invited to the procession. The church, which had won the day, could afford to be generous...