A bronze statue of Pope John Paul II has returned to Hagåtña with a new look, a clean shine and a fresh paint job, but the pope is not twirling in celebration quite yet.
After a six-month absence, the rotating pope statue was reinstalled at its proper place on a median in front of the Hagåtña cathedral on Saturday.
The green-brown tarnish that once covered the 30-year-old statue is gone, and a concrete base that holds the statue like a chariot has been renovated.
The restored statue is also a "truer representation" of Pope John Paul II when he visited Guam in 1981, said Jon Junior Calvo, a volunteer spokesman for the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica.
While friends of the Archdiocese restored the statue at a Thailand foundry, an artist also made slight changes to the statue's face and vestments, creating a more authentic re-creation of the way the pope looked during his historic visit to Guam.
At one point the life-size replica of the pope rotated, powered by a motor installed in the concrete base, but island weather and powerful typhoons eventually broke the motor, according to Pacific Daily News files.
The pope statue stopped rotating in 2001, according to Pacific Daily News files, but Calvo said the statue had problems with its mechanism for even longer.
Calvo said workers were finalizing utility and lighting details at the restored statue, but the archdiocese intends to fix the rotation mechanism.
He didn't know when the repairs would be complete, but said he would inform the public shortly.
Workers were fiddling with the rotation mechanism yesterday morning.
Orange traffic cones blocked off the base area, where exposed electrical wiring showed the renovation to be a work in progress.
The statue was erected in 1981 in honor of Pope John Paul II's visit to Guam.
The renovations were prompted by his beatification, which occurred in May.
Hagåtña Mayor John Cruz said yesterday he was thrilled the pope statue had returned to his village in time for its annual fiesta, which starts with a procession around the cathedral.
The fiesta starts Sept. 10, he said.
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