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An archive photo from 2017 shows the assembly of a giant sculpture of Our Lady of Aparecida (Brazil) | Credit: Gilmar Pinna |
The stainless steel monument, donated by artist Gilmar Pinna in 2017, is about 50 meters tall, nearly 20 meters taller than Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer statue. The pieces of the work, which remained in the construction stage, are located near Via Dutra, the main highway between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the two largest cities in Brazil.
On Monday, October 21, 2019, Judge Luciene Ferreira Allemand accepted the lawsuit from the Brazilian Association of Atheists and Agnostics (Atea) to prohibit the installation of the work, alleging the alleged use of public funds and the alleged donation of municipal land for promotion the Catholic faith, which would harm the secular state.
However, the municipality appealed the decision and, after litigation that lasted more than two years, on March 9th, the judges of the Ninth Chamber of private law of the Court of Justice of Sao Paulo (TJSP) reserved the ruling and degtermined that the work is justified because the main economic focus of Aparecida is religious tourism, which attracts thousands of people and promotes local commerce.
The judges also pointed out that at that time the principle of secularism of the State was not violated by the mayor.
"Aparecida is the Marian capital of Brazil, and this judicial decision came to recognize the religiosity of the Brazilian people," said the mayor after the ruling.
The court order also ruled that five other sculptures of the patron saint of Brazil, built by the same artist and placed in different parts of the city in 2017 on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the discovery of the original image of the Virgin, should also not be removed. Appeared in the Paraíba do Sul river
The judges also pointed out that at that time the principle of secularism of the State was not violated by the mayor.
"Aparecida is the Marian capital of Brazil, and this judicial decision came to recognize the religiosity of the Brazilian people," said the mayor after the ruling.
The court order also ruled that five other sculptures of the patron saint of Brazil, built by the same artist and placed in different parts of the city in 2017 on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the discovery of the original image of the Virgin, should also not be removed. Appeared in the Paraíba do Sul river
READ THE STORY OF OUR LADY OF APARECIDA
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The Marian images that were going to be removed are located in the roundabouts of Aparecida do Norte (Sao Paulo), a city of great importance for Catholics, since the Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida is located there, the second largest in the world after the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican.
The images also have great historical, religious and cultural value, as they represent the discovery of the original statue of Our Lady of Aparecida in the bed of the Paraíba do Sul river in 1717. The original relic is kept in the Basilica that bears her name.
Miguel da Costa Carvalho Vidigal, lawyer and director of the Union of Catholic Jurists of Sao Paulo (Ujucasp), congratulated the decision of the Ninth Chamber of Private Law, "first, because the national order was respected, to the detriment of the judicial activism so present in our days".
And "second, because the history of our country, so closely linked to the Catholic religion, has been preserved," he added.
ACI Prensa
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