CHURCH OBJECTION

Hokitika Guardian, 19 July 1932, Page 5

CHURCH OBJECTION

ANZAC MEMORIAL

CONTROVERSY STILL RAGING.,

(Australian Press Association.)

SYDNEY, July 18

A cbntroversy is still, raging in regard to the group of statuary (entitled “The Crucifixion of Civilisation' ; comprising an Anzac Memorial, the foundation stone of which is being laid to-morrow.

The statuary, to which, the Roman Catholics object, includes the nude figure of a woman‘(symbolising peace) who is crucified on tlie war standard of the God, Mars, carrying the bodyarmour, the shield and the helmet o r .the war God. At the woman’s feet there are many dead soldiers.

The trustees of the memorial have written Archbishop Sheehan ' (Catholic Coadjutor of. Sydney), expressing: deepest regret that it is the intention of the Roman Catholic dignitaries to hold aloof from to-morrow’s ceremony, which, they say, will be no different from that held at the dedication of the cenotaph. The trustees also suggest that the objections 'to the sculpture are baßpq on misconception. : / A large percentage of the Protestant Ministers have already, “through the press, expressed their objection to the use of the Cross for this particular purpose, ‘'which,'* they state, ‘.‘is gravely offensive to ordinary Christian decency.” .' . ■' ' •