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Vatican City, May 21, 2017 / 04:23 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Eiffel Tower, the Roman Coliseum, the Statue of Liberty, the Taj Mahal; are just some of the universal monuments that a Colombian teacher makes to scale out of little wooden sticks (toothpicks).

One of his recent works is Saint Peter’s Square and he dreams of showing it to Pope Francis during the visit the pontiff will make to this country in September.

Alberto Antonio Cruz Serna has been building models with toothpicks since he was 12.

He currently resides in the town of Puerto Berrio, in the Antioquia district teaches natural science to high school students at the Antonio Nariño Educational Institution, and has built more than 200 artistic creations with his own unique style.

Among his works there are also small-scale replicas of Catholic buildings such as Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Puerto Berrio and Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican.

Cruz, who is the father of five children, has displayed his works in a number of cities in Colombia, such as Medellín and Barrancabermeja. He has also won several awards.

“What motivates me to build these works of art in toothpicks is the challenge of it. The structure is spectacular. It’s not like the wood you cut and set in place. Here it’s about joining stick to stick, seeing the lengths and making shapes. The degree of difficulty makes it more interesting,” the 59-year-old teacher told CNA.

Cruz revealed that he has never visited the monuments he has reproduced with toothpicks. Nor has he studied architecture or design. He just does research on the Internet and in books on every detail of the artwork he wants to reproduce.

His tools? A nail clipper and special wood glue.

Cruz commented that his motivation for building the replica of Saint Peter’s Square was that in late 2015, he learned that Pope Francis might be visiting Colombia. The Vatican would later confirm the trip, which is scheduled for this September.

The construction of the artwork took 17 months. Cruz spent about five hours a day on the project. On weekends, he worked almost all day. 

The Saint Peter’s Square model was made of more than 36,000 toothpicks. It measures about 6 feet long by 3 feet wide.

Cruz said that one of the most beautiful characteristics of St. Peter’s Square are the columns because “they are like arms that welcome Catholics from all parts of the world each time that the Pope celebrates a Mass or appears. The shape of the plaza is like a hug.”

While he was working on this structure, Cruz also made a reproduction of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Roman Coliseum.

Regarding the pontiff’s visit to his country, Cruz said that “we Colombians are waiting for the moment when the pope visits. It is critical to the process we are going through (as a nation).”

He added that the Pope is important to him because “I’m Catholic, my family is too. And so, who would not want to meet the Pope? If he is the closest representative of God that we have on Earth? For Catholics, who would not want to be at his side?

Cruz said that he would like to display the model of St. Peter’s Square and the other works of art in Medellin during Pope Francis’ apostolic visit.

“My dream is that wherever the Holy Father is, I’d be nearby with my artwork and so he could take a look at them…That is the dream I want to fulfill. So he would be with me for just a few seconds.”

The teacher hopes that the Antioquia political and religious authorities will take an interest in his work and he will have the opportunity to display them. “I’ll keep on persevering and knocking on doors,” he said.

Cruz said that the governor of Antioquia will soon be visiting the school where he teaches, and he will take advantage of the occasion to show him the Saint Peter’s Square, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Roman Coliseum.

His upcoming projects include the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Las Lajas, and Notre Dame Cathedral.
 

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Rome, Italy, Nov 2, 2019 / 10:38 am (CNA).- Pope Francis celebrated Mass Saturday for the souls of the dead in Rome’s Catacombs of Priscilla, saying the place of a Christian is in the safety of the hands of God, whatever the outside circumstances might be.

“The souls of the just are in the hands of God, the hands of God, which are wounded…” he said Nov. 2.

“The place of the Christian,” he continued, “is in the intercession of Jesus before the Father. In the hands of God. And we are safe. Whatever happens, happens – it is the cross. In this identity we are blessed. If they persecute us, if they say anything against us, if we are in the hands of God, [which are] wounded by love, we are safe. This is our place.”

“Where am I most safe? In the hands of God or with other things, other securities?” he asked.

The Catacombs of Priscilla were one of the prominent catacombs of the early Church in Rome and is referred to in early Christian texts as “regina catacumbarum,” meaning “the queen of the catacombs” because of the many martyrs who were buried there.

The catacombs were lost for several hundred years, after the entrances were blocked to keep out thieves. They were rediscovered in the 16th-century, though many of the remains of the martyrs were subsequently removed.

In his homily at Mass, Pope Francis said the martyrs of the Church in the first centuries, those who came to the catacombs to celebrate the Eucharist in safety, many of whom were killed for the faith, have the same identity as the many Christians who are persecuted around the world today.

“Also today there are Christians who are persecuted, more than in the first centuries, more,” he said.

He told the story of an Albanian religious sister who was imprisoned in a re-education camp during Communism, who would baptize children in secret, because the priests were forbidden from giving sacraments. There were no cups, so the sister used a shoe with river water to baptize the children, he said.

In his homily, Pope Francis also reflected on the beatitudes as the identity of a Christian. “There is no other [identity],” he said. “If you do this, if you live like this, you are a Christian.”

Belonging to a Catholic movement or group is valid too, he said, but “your identity card” is the beatitudes. “If you do not have this, movements, memberships serve no purpose.”

“Either you live like this or you are not a Christian,” he said, adding that “without this, there is no identity. there is a pretense of being a Christian, but no identity.”

The pope noted that it was his first time ever visiting the catacombs. After Mass, upon returning to the Vatican, he visited the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica to spend a moment in prayer for the souls of the deceased popes who are buried there.

It had recently been tradition for popes to say Mass for All Souls’ Day at Rome’s Campo Verano cemetery, founded in the 19th century.

Pope Francis did the same for the first three years of his pontificate, though in 2016 he chose to say the All Souls’ Day Mass at Rome’s Prima Porta Cemetery instead.

In 2017, he celebrated the feast day Mass in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial in Nettuno, an Italian cemetery for American personnel killed in World War II.

Dedicated in 1956, the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery covers 77 acres, with 7,860 servicemen buried there. A chapel on the grounds holds the names of an additional 3,095 servicemen who went missing in action.

Last year, the pope said Mass in a cemetery for deceased children and unborn babies called the “Garden of Angels,” located in the Laurentino Cemetery on the outskirts of Rome.

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Vatican City, May 31, 2017 / 06:35 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After a major suicide bomb tore through a busy neighborhood in Kabul, killing at least 80 people, Pope Francis condemned the ‘brutal’ act, offering his prayers for the victims and for … […]