New breach in Vatican walls gives access to parking garage

Published: 2006-02-10

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- U.S. Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka formally blessed a new breach in the Vatican walls, opening a gate to a new 240-space underground parking garage. The cardinal, president of the commission governing Vatican City State, said the work on the walls involved not only destruction, but also the restoration of a segment built during the 1559-1565 pontificate of Pope Pius IV. The Feb. 10 ceremony included unveiling a new gate inscribed in Latin with the year, the name of Pope Benedict XVI and the fact that it is the first year of his pontificate. The new bronze-covered steel gate was sculpted by Gino Giannetti and scraped with a steel brush to "obtain various degrees of brightness" as the metal ages to a natural variety of colors, the Vatican said.

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