“The Vatican ordered it to me”

“I covered it because the Vatican ordered me to”he assured this Wednesday to the newspaper The Republic he restaurateur Bruno Valentinetti83 years old, who lives in the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina and who had been commissioned by the parish priest to restore the fresco, which is dated 2000.

“Last night I deleted it. I don’t care. I keep saying she wasn’t the prime minister.but the Curia wanted it that way, and I deleted it,” he added.

The pope’s vicar and bishop of Rome XIV lionCardinal Baldo Reina, expressed in a note his “disappointment at what happened” and announced that he would “immediately begin the necessary investigations to determine the possible responsibilities of those involved“.

He further added that “images of sacred art and Christian tradition cannot be object of misuse or exploitationsince its sole purpose is to support liturgical life and personal and community prayer”, which indicated that he would request the removal of Meloni’s supposed face from the fresco.

Meloni’s joke

Now the work will focus on the restoration of the original imageaccording to the Roman newspaper, which indicates that the Special Superintendence of Rome, at the request of the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, immediately began an archival investigation to locate photographic documentation or drawings of the original painting project in the Chapel of the Crucifix, created in the year 2000.

Several meetings and conversations between the Superintendency, the owner (the Fund for Worship Buildings), the Office for Worship Buildings of the Vicariate of Rome and Monsignor Daniele Micheletti, parish priest of San Lorenzo in Lucina, led to the removal of the president’s face.

The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Melonihe joked this Saturday with a message on his social networks: “No, I definitely don’t look like an angel.”he wrote on Facebook along with the emoji of a laughing face.

The news was published this Saturday by the newspaper The Republicwho explained that on the marble bust of King Humbert II of Savoy in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina there are frescoes of two angels.

One of them appeared in recent days with a new face that looks like Meloni’s, very different from the winged figure that existed before holding a scroll and in which you can see what looks like a map of Italy and in front of another angel offering the crown to the sovereign.

Although the restaurateur denied that she was the prime minister, the resemblance was such that provoked protests from the opposition and various associations. These days the basilica also became a place of pilgrimage for tourists and curious people who wanted to see if the angel truly resembled the Italian president.