A Way of the Cross set up along the Via della Conciliazione
A monumental Way of the Cross has been set up in Rome along the Via della Conciliazione, which leads from the Tiber to St. Peter’s Square, and was dedicated on the First Sunday of Lent, March 13, by Cardinal Angelo Comastri, Vicar General of Vatican City.
This Via Crucis is made up of 49 statues and 11 bronze crosses, 2 meters [6.5 feet] tall, the work of the Italian sculptors Pasquale Nava and Giuseppe Allamprese, who since 2002 worked on this project in a traditional style. The sculptures were cast according to the lost-wax method in the studio of Domus Dei, which belongs to the Congregation of the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master. The artists explained that this unique work “required much humility” on their part. The way of the cross will be exhibited until April 29, five days after Easter, on which date the 14 stations will return to the municipality of Coquimbo (Chile) which transferred control of this artwork to the foundation “Cruz del Milenio III” (“Cross of the Third Millennium”). The Via Crucis will then take its place in the park of the Cross of the Third Millennium, where a large cross more than twenty-six meters [85 feet] tall has been erected. On that occasion the first parish in the world dedicated to John Paul II will be established.
The mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, who participated in the press conference on March 9, Ash Wednesday, saw in these Stations of the Cross “a way of approaching Easter, then the beatification of John Paul II. This contemporary work of art will help everyone, inhabitants of Rome and pilgrims, to experience better and more intensely the mysteries of the faith.”
The Via della Consolazione, opened by Benito Mussolini in 1929 to celebrate the Lateran Accords and to emphasize the spirit of cooperation between the Italian State and the Holy See, is under the jurisdiction of the City of Rome. However the mayor of the Holy City immediately aggred to the request of the Domus Dei studio to exhibit the Via Crucis at that site. (Sources : apic/imedia/radiovatican/corrieredellasera/roma.it – DICI no. 232 dated March 19, 2011)
