African Basilica
The phenomenon of the largest Catholic Church in the world, the $200 million basilica of Our Lady of Yamoussoukro (Part I, Oct. 8), now maintained at $1.5 million annual Vatican expense as it casts its awesome shadow over the impoverished slums of an African city, symbolizes misplaced Christian piety at its flagrant worst.
The claims of its builder, Ivory Coast President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, that public funds were not used to build it and it is a “donation from my family to the Holy See as a tribute to Mary, the Mother of Jesus,” are no justification for this monstrosity.
When will people like Houphouet-Boigny come to understand that we already have in us and around us the ultimate “tribute” to the divine.
It is ourselves and the Earth we inhabit. And this “tribute” needs a lot of working on before we take time out to build an architectural idol to indulge private pietistic whims, and then expect the Vatican to maintain it with the contributions of the poor.
BILL McAULIFFE
San Diego
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