SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - The Vatican acknowledged it was taken by surprise to discover that a wooden hammer and sickle sculpture with a figure of a crucified Christ gifted to the Pope in Bolivia was not commissioned by leftist president Evo Morales but designed by a priest killed in 1980.
The blending of the symbol of communism, under which many Christians were persecuted in the former Soviet bloc and still are in some communist countries, provoked outrage among Catholic officials.
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