The Divine Mercy Statue Causing A Stir

KANSAS CITY, Missouri. - 

It is 25 feet tall, weighs 4 tons and overlooks Interstate 35 near Liberty, Mo. And for two months, thousands of motorists have driven by, wondering what it is.

Slow down and you'll see it is a steel statue of Jesus.

Yet it's not near a church, it doesn't look like a monument and it almost appears as if it's in someone's backyard.

It's baffling.

"I just thought it was massive, and it just caught my eye as I drove by," said Patricia Downey of Lathrop, Mo. "I wondered about the significance about it and who owned it."

Some people have barely noticed it, while others have stopped to stare.

For some, it is holy.

"Lots of people will come and pray in front of the statue," said John Harrison, spokesman for Divine Mercy LLC, a development company.

The company owns the statue, the land it stands on and the duplexes nearby.

"Some people will just gaze at it," Harrison said. "It's not quite a billboard, but it certainly has a message."

And that's what everyone wants to know - the message or its meaning.

The best person to answer that question would be the man who commissioned the statue - the owner of the property - but he doesn't want the attention.

It isn't shame, Harrison said. It's that the owner wants this to be about Christ.

"He wants no merit," said Harrison, who attends the same parish as the owner.

Through Harrison, the owner said the purpose of the statue is to be an important image for the public.

According to county property records, the statue is on land owned by Jim O'Loughlin.

But the people who are coming to worship don't seem to care who the owner is or why the statue is there.

In fact, Harrison said, the statue is essentially being donated to the community.

When the statue was completed, it was displayed for 25,000 people at the Eucharist Family Rosary Crusade at Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals, on May 25.

It was supposed to go from there to Divine Mercy's newest development near I-35 and Parvin Road, but construction was delayed, so the statue needed a temporary site.

So for the last several weeks, it has been at 9118 N.E. 73rd St. in Kansas City, across the street from the duplex's leasing office facing I-35.

It will be moved to its final destination soon, Harrison said.

Residents at the duplexes are just as baffled as most I-35 motorists.

"It's just - there," said one man.

But Catholics might recognize the statue.

In 1931, an uneducated Polish nun named Mary Faustina Kowalska began having encounters with Jesus, she wrote in a diary.

During the encounters, he dictated a prayer to her. The prayer is known as the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

But later, he also commanded her to commission a painting of how he appeared to her, and that became the Vilnius image, which the statue portrays in a three-dimensional figure.

Jesus' right hand is raised in blessing and his left hand is touching his heart, with rays emanating from it.

Artist Dale Lamphere of Sturgis, S.D., cast the head, hands and feet with stainless steel, and a lightning-resistant rod supports the hollow body.

At its final site, the statue will be blessed and stand at the head of a reflecting pond. It will be open for public viewing in November.

"It will be in a quiet place where people can contemplate God," Harrison said.