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House of Formation chapel has new crucifix, artwork

Realistic cross created for diocese by Mexican artist, donated by Hispanic cursillo

Published: March 28, 2015      

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

Aprille Hanson

The broken body of Jesus hangs on the cross in the House of Formation chapel in Little Rock. The wooden crucifix, carved by Mexican artist Juan Campos, was donated to the chapel by Hispanic Cursillo.

Aprille Hanson

The broken body of Jesus hangs on the cross in the House of Formation chapel in Little Rock. The wooden crucifix, carved by Mexican artist Juan Campos, was donated to the chapel by Hispanic Cursillo.

As seminarians enter the St. John Vianney Chapel at the House of Formation in Little Rock, they are faced with a crucifix that goes beyond just showing an image of Jesus on the cross.

Jesus’ arms hang as the thin weight of his body, mostly skin and bones, is suspended only by the large nails hammered into his hands and feet. His knees are bruised and bloody as is his shoulder caused by the weight of carrying the cross and falling on his journey to Calvary. His head, encased in bloody thorns, hangs down, his eyes are closed as the torture inflicted takes its tragic toll. It is at that moment, Catholics can imagine Jesus took his final breath, his garment and hair the only movement blowing in the wind. 

The wood carving, created by Juan Campos of Guanajuato, Mexico, was donated to the House of Formation by the Hispanic Cursillo, a movement through the Hispanic Ministry Office. It arrived in early March.

“What I really like about this is, it’s really realistic,” said seminarian Vince Kozlowski. “You really see the pain and torment he went through to die for our sins.”

For seminarian Omar Galvan, it’s as if the face of Jesus is “looking at me,” from the crucifix.

“You see the wind going through his hair and garment. I can imagine being there,” Galvan said.

It’s this kind of response that Father Ruben Quinteros, assistant vocations director, hoped the seminarians would have from this Churrigueresque, or Spanish Baroque, artistic rendering of the crucifix.

“The guys can pray here. It’s the place where they are formed by Jesus Christ himself in the priesthood,” Father Quinteros said. “I think it’s really neat to have that part of them (Hispanic Cursillo) in the chapel.”

Campos is a devout Catholic who has created other wood masterpieces for the diocese, including the Our Lady of Guadalupe sculpture at St. Theresa Church in Little Rock and St. John Vianney also in the chapel.

Father Quinteros and Msgr. Scott Friend, vocations director, searched out an artist while in Mexico about four or five years ago.

“We walked through many workshops, but none were like his,” Father Quinteros said.

Msgr. Friend added Campos is extremely humble and had to be pushed to even sign his name to the sculpture.

When a new, larger crucifix was needed for the chapel — the smaller one was donated to Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Booneville — the Hispanic Cursillo wanted to be the ones to make the donation. Campos charged $2,000 for the sculpture, which ordinarily would have “cost a fortune,” Msgr. Friend said.

“They saw the signs showing Knights of Columbus and different parishes donating and the idea just came from there saying, ‘Father why don’t we donate something from the movement for the seminarians to have at the house?’” Father Quinteros said.

Father Quinteros and Msgr. Friend met Campos in June 2014 at his home while in Mexico to ask him to create it. The process took about six months.

“Jesus body is just a solid piece of wood so he needed time to find the right one,” Father Quinteros said. “So I was in constant communication with him. By the end of January he said the cross was ready.”

The only snag was how to get this 8-foot-by-5-foot wood sculpture delivered from Mexico to Little Rock without being damaged.

House of Formation housemother Lupita Guido and her husband Pablo, members of St. Theresa Church in Little Rock and the parents of Father Juan Guido, associate pastor at St. Raphael Church in Springdale, offered to make the roughly 25-hour trip in one weekend to Mexico to pick up the crucifix. Lupita Guido, who is from the same state in Mexico as Campos, said they had no problems getting it across the border. It is the second time they’ve brought back a piece of artwork by Campos.

“I am just happy that God allowed us to do this twice,” Guido said. “I’m very emotional about it; to think that God chose us to do this for him.”

By reaching out to Campos, one thing was certain — this would be a particularly Latin American rendering, which tends to be a more graphic style.

“We talked about the cross, talked about what Jesus would have suffered and he put all of that in there,” Msgr. Friend said. “Being drawn to the face of Christ for us as priests, this is part of what we’re supposed to be living. This is a wonderful representation of that and what the priesthood is supposed to mean for us.”

The crucifix is not the only unique artistic rendering on the chapel wall. Msgr. Friend’s niece, Kat Friend, 23, a member of Christ the King Church, donated two colorful paintings of her personal depictions of angels. It was part of her senior art show at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., a painting and sculpture series called “Death, Grieving and Rebirth.”  It was inspired by her grief journey after her mother Betty Friend’s death from cancer in 2013.

“We had a conversation one night about being there when her mom actually died,” Msgr. Friend said. “I said, ‘You know Katherine when that happens it’s a very sacred time. It’s a time where the window or door between heaven and Earth is opened. So in that room, there are going to be angels there, St. Therese will be there (because of Betty’s devotion to her), your grandparents will be there, and all those people are going to help her. We need help to be born into the world and they kind of help us to be born into the new world, the kingdom. They’re going to be there to take care of your mom. You’re an artist so during that time, just imagine what they must look like and the beauty that they are and your mom is going to see all that.’”

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