This isn't specifically a dropping from the Catholic birdcage, but it does strike me as almost birdcage-worthy: Alessandro Speciale reports for Religion News Service that people in Rome are worried about John Paul II's head. Not the real head, you understand. His head on a statue outside the main railway station in Rome.
The problem? It's too round. And therefore it's a "sacrilegious mud stain" on the pope's memory, according to Federico Mollicone, head of the Roman city council's commission on culture.
The solution? Give the pope a new head. The round head is hollow, removable, and like a sentry box, so it can be yanked off and another one put on in its place. The artistic idea behind the hollow, removable, round head was, according to sculptor Oliviero Rainaldi, "to showcase the late pope's desire to welcome humanity."
And who knew it would be so easy to give the former pope a new head?
(The Vatican has, by the way, been opposed to the statue from the outset. See the video at the head of this positing for a discussion of the Vatican's response.)
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