Budapest ready to take over Pope John Paul II statue from French town

Budapest, May 20 (MTI) – Budapest’s 8th district is ready to install the statue of Pope John Paul II which the French authorities ordered to be pulled down in Ploermel, a town in Brittany, national daily Napi Gazdasag said on Wednesday.

A civil organisation has started collecting donations to finance the transport of the statue, a work by Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli, to Budapest. District mayor Mate Kocsis, who also joined the initiative, said that the statue could be installed on the square named after the late Pope.

Earlier this month, Jozsef Michl, mayor of Tata in northern Hungary, made a similar offer.

In early May, a French court ruled that Ploermel should demolish the memorial which it said was incompatible with the 1905 law on the separation of state and church.

Photo: www.maszol.ro

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters