A new statue that depicts the late pope St. John Paul II throwing a boulder into red water has provoked debate in his native Poland and revived memories of a 1999 Italian sculpture that showed him crushed under a meteorite, to which the new work was intended as a counter-statement.
The statue by Polish artist Jerzy Kalina, titled “Poisoned Well,” was inaugurated Thursday in front of Warsaw’s National Museum to mark 100 years since the much-loved pope’s birth on May 18, 1920.
Kalina, 76, said the installation in the museum’s fountain relates to John Paul II’s efforts in the 1980s to help free Poland from communism, which is symbolized by the red colour the water has from a red fabric placed on the fountain’s bottom.
The artist, the creator of many works dealing with the Catholic faith and church, said he also wanted to send a “warning against multiplying…