Warm Welcome for a 8,400-lb Mary
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
April 12, 2011
ILLINOIS - Our Lady of the New Millennium, a statue of the Virgin Mary arrived at its new temporary home Sunday in the parking lot of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church. Applause erupted from the impromptu crowd of about 300 that gathered when the hydraulic lifts on its special flatbed semi-trailer raised the nearly 34-foot-tall stainless steel statue to an upright position after its journey down U.S. 41 from Chicago. The 8,400-pound statue was the dream of former Oak Lawn resident the late Carl Demma, who wanted since the age of 9 to build a statue of Mary for all of Chicago to see after mistaking the statue of the Roman goddess of agriculture on top of the Chicago Board of Trade building for the Virgin. The statue, created by artist Charles Cropper Parks and his assistant Matt Large, has been on tour around the Chicago area since 1999 after it was blessed in St. Louis by Pope John Paull II. [link]
April 12, 2011
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| "Our Lady of the New Millennium" By Charles Cropper Parks |
