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Statues of John Paul II are in high demand with Polish sculptor Czeslaw Dzwigaj already fulfilling 70+ orders, and more continue to “pour in”.
“With the beatification, priests now want a statue in their church with a reliquary at the base so parishioners can practice the cult of devotion of John Paul II,” Dzwigaj said.
Elsewhere in Poland, Poles have so far expressed little interest in packaged trips to the Vatican to attend the May 1 beatification.
“We have been advertising since January, and nobody has called. I have no clients for this trip,” Artur Krowiak of travel operator Barthur told the German Press Agency dpa. Barthur doesn’t know why there is little interest. He says travel package including food, accommodation and travel is attractively priced.
A parish in Lublin, eastern Poland, has reported having only half the people it needed to fill a bus on a six-day trip for the beatification.
Meanwhile Church and local government organisers are planning to accommodate at least 300,000 in St Peter’s Square for the occasion.
America’s Catholic News service reports that Msgr. Liberio Andreatta, head of Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the Vatican-related pilgrimage agency, told reporters on March 29, “Rome is ready to welcome every pilgrim who wants to come. Earlier, newspapers published megalithic numbers and said every hotel is booked. That’s not true.”
According to Father Cesare Atuire of Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the announcement of the beatification meant travel agents were quick to buy up blocks of hotel rooms, but now they know how many they need, they are freeing up some accommodation space.
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