By Cassandra Garrison
LIMA, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Before Pope Leo reaches Peru later this week, a larger-than-life version is already waiting for him on the Pacific shore. A towering white statue of the pontiff, arms stretched wide, was inaugurated on Monday ahead of Leo's final and most personal leg of his South American tour.
The 14-meter (46-foot) monument stands in Callao, a port city adjoining Lima, and is billed by its municipality as the world's tallest sculpture of a pope. It depicts the first US-born pope in flowing white robes in a country that has embraced him as one of its own.
Leo’s arrival in Peru on Wednesday will cap his 12-day, three-country tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, his first to South America as pope and a return to a region where he spent years as a missionary. The 71-year-old pontiff has used the trip to call for greater unity in a politically divided region and to address an array of social, economic and environmental issues.
"It's a perfect welcome for the pope," said Natalia Moran, 29, who came to the unveiling with her mother. They both wore T-shirts with an image of the pontiff and the message "Welcome home, Pope Leo."
She was among the hundreds of people who turned out for the statue's inauguration in a seaside park. The crowd cheered and a youth choir sang as an enormous white draping was pulled off the sculpture, revealing a precise likeness of Pope Leo that even features a small mole above his upper lip.
Workers last week transported the enormous statue, made of steel, fiberglass and resin, across the capital in sections aboard trailers before cranes hoisted its body and outstretched arms into place overlooking the city.
The sculptors, Rafael Gutiérrez, 43, and Deyvi Wong, 42, said they worked with a team to complete the monument in just 45 days. Starting with a basic design provided by the municipality, the sculptors studied close-up photographs of Leo, down to minute details of his face.
For Callao, Peru's main port city and an area hit by a recent surge in violent crime, Wong said he hoped the statue would transmit a message of "peace that should prevail here among everyone who lives in the district."
Leo's return to Peru has generated intense excitement in a country preparing for what officials and businesses hope will be a tourism bonanza.
Millions of people are expected to turn out for Leo's largest Masses in Lima and Chiclayo, while merchants in the capital are selling pope-themed shirts and souvenirs. Another statue of the pontiff also already stands in Chiclayo, the northern city where Leo remains affectionately remembered from his years as bishop.
Leo is due to arrive at an air base in Callao on Wednesday before meeting President Keiko Fujimori.
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison in Lima, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
