The History Behind Rio’s Massive Christ Statue

THE WASHINGTON POST
By Michelle Boorstein

Christ The Redeemer is seen during sunrise in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil August 2, 2016. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

BRAZIL---The 125-foot, concrete statue on a mountain overlooking Rio couldn’t appear more straightforward: It’s a giant Jesus with His arms outstretched. “Christ the Redeemer” — or “Cristo Redentor” — rises almost a half-mile into the Rio sky, and is perhaps the most recognizable Christian image in Latin America. According to the BBC, the original idea for a monument to Christ came from a group of Brazilians who, “in the wake of World War I, feared an advancing tide of Godlessness. Church and state had been separated when Brazil became a republic at the end of the previous century, and they saw the statue as a way of reclaiming Rio — then Brazil’s capital city — for Christianity.”[link]