Wing and a prayer: Vatican doves sometimes turn chicken

Published: 2004-02-13

VATICAN (CNS) -- The noble white dove has come to symbolize peace, fidelity, fraternity and hope, but the Vatican seems to have seen more than its fair share of doves suffering from a fear of flying. Some might even say those doves are really just chicken. What's meant to be an impressive launch from the fifth-story window of the pope's studio instead turns into a feathery fiasco. In 1998 both doves recoiled from their release and turned tail back inside the apostolic palace. Delighted, Pope John Paul II said, "It is clear this is a house of peace, because the doves don't want to leave." This scene of one or both doves diving for papal cover has been repeated over the years. Most recently, on Jan. 25, call it stage-fright, call it premonition: One dove refused to leave the pope's windowsill while the more gutsy of the two flew off to a grisly fate. One Italian newspaper reported the bird of peace was later found injured from a seagull attack.

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