A Virgin Mary statue has been returned by Britons to Argentina, the Vatican website reported. The official ceremony in St. Peter’s Square became a real event for thousands of believers, while Pope Francis was very touched by returning the statue, he has even appeared to wipe away tears.
For the Virgin Mary statue, it took 37 years to be back to Argentina again. In 1982, when Argentine troop invaded the British colony, they had brought a statue of Our Lady of Lujan to the Falkland Islands, or Las Malvinas. After the two-month war, the statue ended up in a military cathedral in Britain, where it served as a focus for prayers for dead from both sides.
In 1982, Britain defeated Argentina, which believed the Falklands were illegally taken from it in 1833.
On Wednesday, Pope Francis has welcomed the statue by a kiss and wiped his eyes. As the pontiff said, the stone plaque honours war dead in his Argentine homeland. The Virgin Mary statue is going back to Argentina, while British Catholics will get a replica.
On Tuesday, Pope Francis ordered to change the name of the secret archive of the Vatican. According to the pontiff, the word ‘secret’ sounds too sinister and doesn’t reflect the idea of the archive as a collection of the unique historical documents.
