Christ of the Depths

Genoa's Duilio Marcante is a blond, brawny specialist in diving equipment who spends a lot of time with air tank and rubber flippers below the surface of the Mediterranean. One day Marcante sat on a rock, staring into the clear, green water and thought-- as he later recalled: Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were a statue of Christ down there. Then the dead -- all who have lived by the sea and died in it -- could have their own secure refuge, a place to pray." Duilio Marcante told some of his friends, and the idea raced through Genoa and far beyond. Hundreds of Italian athletes sent in bronze and copper trophies to be melted down for the statue. The Italian navy and merchant marine offered bronze scrap from Italian ships sunk in World War II, and from one poor woman came a single copper coin. Sculptor Guido Galletti, 61, labored for nearly a year to model and cast a figure eight feet tall to stand on a pedestal ten feet high.

The best place to mount it, the planners decided, was 56 feet below the surface of the bay of San Fruttuoso, between Camogli and Portofmo. There the waters were almost crystal-clear, so that the statue would be visible from above. Many a sea faring man had lost his life there -- nearby the Genoese lost a bloody naval battle with the Venetians in 1431 and the British frigate Croesus went down in 1855.

Last week 3,000 people gathered in a flotilla of small boats in the bay of San Fruttuoso. After Mass, the giant statue, its 900-lb. bulk suspended from a naval crane, was lowered into the sea. Slowly the water mounted, inch by inch, until at last it swirled over the suppliant hands. Said a message from Genoa's Giuseppe Cardinal Siri: "Where men, the pioneers of new roads, are beginning to descend, our Lord and Redeemer descends today."

Duilio Marcante led a group of divers below with floral offerings. He came up white-faced. Said he: "There was a lump in my throat so bad I could hardly breathe and I didn't think I'd ever manage to get to the bottom with my carnations. Then I saw the statue down there. It was truly moving. I shall never forget it."

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