By Paul Jeffrey 

Tegucigalpa, Honduras, January 19 (ENI) - The new Christ statue that looks down on the capital city of Honduras will have permanent security to protect it from "mentally ill" persons who have stated they will blow it up, Tegucigalpa Archbishop Oscar Andres Rodriguez has announced. 
     The 33 meter high statue was inaugurated on January 16. Some 5,000 Hondurans attended the dedication ceremony, which was presided over by Rodriguez. Both President Carlos Roberto Reina and President-elect Carlos Flores also attended. 
     Reina praised the statue, saying it was made from "sand of the poor, gravel of the rich, the cement of love, and the iron of faith." 
     The US$600,000 statue, entitled "The Resurrected Christ," is located atop Picacho Mountain just north of downtown Tegucigalpa. An undisclosed portion of the statue's cost was provided by the Reina administration and the office of the mayor of Tegucigalpa. 
     Claimed by its sponsors to rival the Christ the Redeemer statue on Mount Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro, the Honduran version is slightly shorter than its Brazilian cousin. In addition, it can be hard to find atop a hillside covered with poor houses. More visible than the statue is a huge series of white letters--a la Hollywood--spelling "Coca Cola." 
     Seated beside Rodriguez during the ceremony were Leo Frade, the Anglican bishop of Honduras, and Orthodox leader Pablo Mussa, bishop of the Antiochian Apostolic Catholic Church of Honduras. 
     Frade told those participating in the two and a half hour dedication that his and Mussa's presence "publicly demonstrated that the Christ of Picacho isn't only for Roman Catholics." 
     Although the statue was criticized by some non-Catholics here during the early phase of construction, opposition has been muted of late. 
     One exception has been provided by the evangelical Soldiers of the Lamb Church which held a December 23 rally in the La Merced Plaza here. During the rally, church leaders burned a photo of the Virgin of Suyapa, the patron saint of Honduras. 
     At the same time, they announced they would take "an army of believers" to tear down the Christ statue atop Picacho, arguing that Christians shouldn't adore idols. 
     Rodriguez on January 17 admitted that church leaders were taking the threats seriously and said the statue would be guarded 24 hours a day.  
     "Just as there is joy among those who have gone [to the statue], there are also some persons who are mentally ill with the plague of violence," Rodriguez said. 
     In response to other critics who have denounced the high expense of building such a statue in one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere, Rodriguez announced January 18 that the foundation that constructed the statue would continue to raise money to be used in reforesting Picacho Mountain and in providing decent housing to the poor families who live in marginal neighborhoods underneath the statue.