Why is there a large pine cone statue with egyptian writing in the center of the vaticans courtyard? Also why is the egyptian monument that looks like "washington monument" at the vatican and and cast shadows at 90 degrees that lines up only on with the summer and winter solstices? Also why did the gregorian calender keep the summer and winter solstices lined up with Christmas and Easter? Ive been trying to understand the origin of my religion. I have been a catholic since birth and have a nun and priest as family members. I have many questions though i feel i need answered.

I don't know about a pinecone statue.
The obelisk is a sundial. The solstices can't be changed since they mark the change of seasons and the movement of the sun. Only protestants worry about such things.

fwiw...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 956AAm0h86

it is the vernal equinox that determines when Easter falls

http://catholicism.about.com/od/holyday ... e_Date.htm

Why is it there? Because it has always been there, since way before that land belonged to the Church....the statue was built in the first century....St. Peter's Basilica wasn't built until the 4th century, unlike, say, Islam, which whenever it gains new territory immediately begins by tearing down and destroying all evidence of a pre-Islamic culture, the Church generally respects the culture and achievements of pre-Christian ancestors and makes an effort to preserve the cultural heritage left behind by pre-Christian civilization. This is why there is a great deal of pre-Christian pagan art in the Vatican Museums...and it is why Medieval monks and whatnot spent so much time copying manuscripts of ancient pagan authors like Aristotle or Homer....

The statue was there before there was a 'Vatican City', it's an impressive piece of visual art which is quite beautiful in its own right....the Church has never seen a reason to destroy it simply because it pre-dates the arrival of Christianity in Rome.

The pine cone is not in the center of a courtyard, BTW (and there is no "the courtyard" in the Vatican--there are several of them). It's at one end of the Court of the "Pigna" (pine cone). You can actually see it in this image from Google Maps.

It's at the north end of the courtyard.

Tradition says that obelisk was something that St. Peter saw as he was martyred. To sit there and look at it, thinking about St Peter, oh - it was one of the most powerful moments of my visit to the Vatican.

I know the pine cone statue goes back to the first century, but I'm not sure that the obelisk does.....

Some how the OP reminds me of something. Can't quite put my finger on it, but I've seen something like it before.


GKCh

A lot of fundamentalists use the pagan art and whatnot at the Vatican as proof that Church is evil, this has probably been discussed around here before.

Ah, yes. The very thing.

Perhaps if the OP has more questions, as suggested, they might also resemble those of which you speak.

GKC