Remembering when the ‘Pieta’ came to New York

I can visualize it as though it was yesterday. I will forever treasure the memory.”

Catherine Fegley, a member of St. Peter Parish in Fulton

From all over the world, they came to see the “Pieta” —Michelangelo’s astonishingly realistic marble sculpture of the Blessed Mother holding Jesus after his death on the cross.

The crowds weren’t lined up in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City but at the Vatican Pavilion at the 1964-65 World’s Fair in New York.

Through the kindness of Pope St. John XXIII (+1958-63) and Pope St. Paul VI (+1963-78), the “Pieta” was moved from its niche in the Vatican basilica where it stood for centuries, to the fair where millions of people would be able to see it.

It was the first time the sculpture — one of Christianity’s most revered artworks — left Rome since its completion in 1498.

Pope St. John said the gesture would be in appreciation for all the United States had done for the rest of the world.

The “Pieta” would be the centerpiece of an impressive collection of artworks and artifacts that also included an ancient statue titled “Christ, the Good Shepherd.”

“Pieta” is Italian for “pity” or “compassion.”

Catherine Fegley, a member of St. Peter Parish in Fulton, was a high school junior in Lehighton, Pennsylvania, at that time and got to travel with her class to the World’s Fair.

“The Vatican Pavilion was an amazing experience,” she recalled. “The moving spiral staircase that took you slowly up to the statue with its deep blue background was breathtaking.”

The priceless artwork’s handlers had devised an ingenious method for transporting it 4,500 miles from the Vatican to the New York fairgrounds in Flushing Meadows.

The process included crating the three-and-a-half-ton sculpture in cushioned, waterproof, fireproof materials.

They secured the sculpture inside the cargo hold of an Italian ocean liner, complete with self-contained beacon lights and a radio transmitter to aid in locating it in case disaster struck.

The Official Guidebook to the Vatican Pavilion describes in detail the exhibit hall that was created for the “Pieta.”

“The dark blue flickering votive lights number more than 400 and are arranged in forty-eight vertical strands — twenty-four on each side of the ‘Pieta’ area.

“The 13,000-pound marble base for the ‘Pieta’ was quarried in Carrara, Italy, and brought to New York specifically for the Pavilion display. The statue itself is 68 inches high, measures 63 by 39 inches at the base, and weighs 6,600 pounds.

“The bullet-proof, ceiling-to-floor plexiglass screen through which the Pieta is viewed is comprised of seven huge sheets weighing 700 pounds each. The shield is but one of a network of protective devices counted upon to assure the safety of the statue.”

The room was equipped with three moving walkways and one stationary walkway, each at a different height.

Mrs. Fegley remembers the silence that came over the people as they set their eyes on such a lifelike image of something so deeply spiritual.

“I can visualize it as though it was yesterday,” said Mrs. Fegley. “I will forever treasure the memory.”

Pope St. Paul briefly visited the Vatican Pavilion and the “Pieta” during his historic pastoral visit to the United States and to the United Nations on Oct. 4, 1965.

The fair closed later that year.

Using the same method that had been used to bring the mighty artwork to the United States, its handlers returned it safely to St. Peter’s Basilica.

The chapel from the pavilion was dismantled, rebuilt and moved to Groton, Connecticut, where it now serves as St. Mary, Mother of the Redeemer Church.

A permanent marker now stands in the place once occupied by the Vatican Pavilion in New York’s Corona Park.