A bronze statue of Pope John Paul II has returned to Hagåtña with a
new look, a clean shine and a fresh paint job, but the pope is not
twirling in celebration quite yet.
After a six-month absence, the
rotating pope statue was reinstalled at its proper place on a median in
front of the Hagåtña cathedral on Saturday.
The green-brown
tarnish that once covered the 30-year-old statue is gone, and a concrete
base that holds the statue like a chariot has been renovated.
The
restored statue is also a "truer representation" of Pope John Paul II
when he visited Guam in 1981, said Jon Junior Calvo, a volunteer
spokesman for the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica.
While
friends of the Archdiocese restored the statue at a Thailand foundry, an
artist also made slight changes to the statue's face and vestments,
creating a more authentic re-creation of the way the pope looked during
his historic visit to Guam.
At one point the life-size replica of
the pope rotated, powered by a motor installed in the concrete base, but
island weather and powerful typhoons eventually broke the motor,
according to Pacific Daily News files.
The pope statue stopped
rotating in 2001, according to Pacific Daily News files, but Calvo said
the statue had problems with its mechanism for even longer.
Calvo
said workers were finalizing utility and lighting details at the
restored statue, but the archdiocese intends to fix the rotation
mechanism.
He didn't know when the repairs would be complete, but said
he would inform the public shortly.
Workers were fiddling with the
rotation mechanism yesterday morning.
Orange traffic cones blocked off
the base area, where exposed electrical wiring showed the renovation to
be a work in progress.
The statue was erected in 1981 in honor of
Pope John Paul II's visit to Guam.
The renovations were prompted by his
beatification, which occurred in May.
Hagåtña Mayor John Cruz said
yesterday he was thrilled the pope statue had returned to his village
in time for its annual fiesta, which starts with a procession around the
cathedral.
The fiesta starts Sept. 10, he said.