Religion: Surplus Surplice

All that was needed at brand-new St. Paul’s Church in The Hague was a statue of St. Paul. Rotterdam Sculptor Jan Vlasblom was commissioned to create a statue of the saint, to stand on a pedestal above the main entrance. But when Sculptor Vlasblom unveiled a full-sized clay model, the bishopric’s Roman Catholic Liturgical Commission turned thumbs down. The clerics objected to a hugely exaggerated surplice that engulfed the saint’s figure. It “will give superfluous occasion for wonder instead of admiration,” complained the commission report. “Believers could never recognize this figure as their patron.”

When the decision got out, Dutch Catholic publications unanimously rose to defend the sculptor’s exaggeration, argued that it suggested a frail mortal burdened and glorified by his heavenly mission. “Isn’t wonder worth more than admiration?” wrote one commentator. This week the sculptor planned to meet with church authorities to urge them to change the commission’s verdict. “This is Paul,” Vlasblom maintained, “the man directly in the grip of God.” But the commission seemed adamant and the huge clay statue, still uncast in concrete, began to deteriorate in its wrapping of old rags and oilcloth. “It can’t hold out much longer,” said Mrs. Vlasblom sadly. “Soon the fingers will begin falling off.”