The Virgin as Lady Liberty? Plans unveiled for statue of Mary at U.S.-Mexico border

The Virgin as Lady Liberty? Plans unveiled for statue of Mary at U.S.-Mexico border October 8, 2018

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She will stand tall, with a torch held high, on a hilltop in San Ysidro, overlooking the U.S.-Mexico border region.

Inspired by the Statue of Liberty, the 40-foot-tall monument of Mary, mother of Jesus, will stand as a symbol intended to welcome immigrants and refugees headed to the U.S.

The statue will go up on the hilltop parking lot of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, where community members convened Friday to kick off a crowdfunding campaign to raise $1 million to build the monument.

“It will stand as a beacon of hope and encouragement for people engaged in the struggle of the migrant,” said artist Jim Bliesner, who drew inspiration from immigrants across San Diego for the statue’s design.

The $2 million project, spearheaded by nonprofit San Diego Organizing Project, already has received $1 million from the California Endowment, a private health foundation. The hope is to raise the next $1 million and build the statue by early 2019.

It will be named “Welcome the Stranger.”

Bishop Robert McElroy, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, said the monument and its location will send a strong message about the border.

“It is a symbol and powerful reminder that for us, for us as people of faith, for us as America, the border represents not a line of separation,” he said, “but a line that unites us to Latin America.”

He said the statue will commemorate the past, the present and the future of the U.S.

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Check out the video report above. The artist calls it a “unique artistic statement.” Yeah, that’s one way to describe it. Color me underwhelmed. Our Lady deserves better.


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