Vatican City (Vatican), 2 May (LaPresse) – A mural entitled ‘Franciscus – The Hope’, signed by AleXsandro Palombo, has appeared in the heart of Milan, on the walls of Caritas Ambrosiana, paying homage to the figure of Pope Francis. ‘A powerful work’, reads a note, “steeped in symbolism, which speaks to the present and to the collective conscience”. Pope Francis ‘is portrayed wearing the Franciscan habit, emblem of poverty and renunciation, and an orange life jacket, symbol of hope for migrants crossing the sea. At his feet, the lifeless body of little Alan Kurdi, the Syrian child who has become a global symbol of the migration tragedy. The image is harsh but necessary: typical of the Palombo style that never leaves room for indifference. Like a contemporary Pietà, Pope Francis welcomes the body of little Alan Kurdi like Mary the Son: an urban icon that elevates compassion to the rank of a sacred gesture, Francis becomes a bridge between the human and the sacred, protector of the last and silent witness to the pain of the world’. The work, one reads, ‘is unveiled during the days of the Novendiali, while the universal Church prepares to elect a new Pontiff. The choice is not random: AleXsandro Palombo chooses the time of mourning and reflection to imprint a strong, indelible visual memory in the urban fabric'. The artist was already the author of the mural ‘Caritas’ in which Pope Francis was portrayed as a homeless man. ‘The name ‘Franciscus’, chosen by Bergoglio in 2013 as a tribute to St Francis of Assisi,’ the note continues, ’was a declaration of intent. He chose to set out from Lampedusa for his first apostolic journey, a threshold-place between death and hope, the theatre of migrant routes, a sacred land for those seeking salvation. On that occasion, the Pope strongly denounced ‘the globalisation of indifference’, urging the world not to turn away'.
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