Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire, owned by the Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI), has waged a campaign against an online worldwide competition to elect the new seven wonders of the world which includes no churches among its candidates.Such exclusion is "unexplainable, surprising and suspicious," complained archbishop Mauro Piacenza, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology.
The competition organised by Swiss-Canadian billionaire Bernard Weber, has seen almost 50 million people worldwide vote for 21 artistic sites among which the seven wonders will be chosen and announced on Saturday.
The 21 nominees include Rome's Colosseum, Egypt's pyramides, Moscow's Kremlin and Red Square, as well as Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, a former mosque which is today a museum serving both Christians and Muslims - but no church.
"Seven wonders of the world, there is no room for Christians," was the headline of an editorial by Avvenire published Wednesday, protesting against the fact that none of the Christian artistic treasures such as St Peter's and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel were deemed eligible to become one of the worl'd new 7 wonders to be announced on Saturday.
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