Pope John Paul II Statue Outside a Train Terminal in Rome Gets Bad Reviews

A 5.5m tall bronze statue of the late Pope John Paul II is seen in front of Rome's main railway station on May 19, 2011. The enormous statue, unveiled just weeks after the ex-pontiff was put on the path to sainthood, has sparked controversy -- with locals calling for it to go.

17-foot-tall bronze sculpture of Pope John Paul IIunveiled on May 18, his birthday

The Vatican on Friday slammed a giant new sculpture outside Rome's main train station that portrays John Paul II but has been compared to the late Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

The work by Italian sculptor, Oliviero Rainaldi, unveiled this week in the large piazza outside Rome's main railway station, Termini, aims to depict the beloved late pontiff as if he was opening his cloak to embrace the faithful.

But the Vatican itself has criticized the work, despite the Pontifical Commission for Culture approving the original sketches, saying the effect is "of a mantle that almost looks like a sentry box, topped by a head of a pope which comes off too roundish," the Associated Press reports.

The Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, according to the BBC said the figure depicted in the 16-foot-high bronze creation looks nothing John Paul, who was beatified on May 1 in a ceremony that drew more than one million people to the capital.

"His face... bears only a distant resemblance to that of the pope. Overall, the result does not seem to reach its intention," one commentator reportedly wrote.

Commuters and tourists interviewed by reporters said the modernist statue looked more like Mussolini.