Craftsman's Christ

To the practical eye of Jesus Antonio Molina Vega, an architect and contractor, Colombian religious art seemed decadent. He thought he could do better. Three years ago, in his native city of Neiva (pop. 35,000), he started work on a statue of Christ.

For the sake of variety, European-trained Jesus Molina decided on a supine position. With a contractor's thoroughness, Molina consulted with scores of doctors on bone structure and rigor mortis, attended all the town's autopsies. The result, a massive, 6 ft. 2 in. figure of stone, was stark and realistic (see cut).

To inspire respect rather than pity, Molina left out the traditional wounds, a departure that shocked Neiva's orthodox clergy. Nevertheless, the local government decided to exhibit the statue last month at the Bolivarian Eucharistic Congress in Cali. There clerical higher-ups agreed that it was good church art--except for the absence of the wounds. After Molina added them, the statue was blessed by the Archbishop of Cartagena.

Last week Molina's statue was the object of pious veneration in the fashionable La Ermita church in Cali. Before Easter it will be taken to 16th Century Popayan for the famed Holy Week procession.

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