Custody of pizza pan bearing image of Virgin Mary at issue

Monday, February 26, 2007

Deborah Wrigley
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By Deborah Wrigley

(2/26/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- There's a custody battle underway over a pizza pan that some says bears a vision of the Virgin Mary. The pan has attracted national attention, and brought in hundreds of faithful from around the area hoping to see a miracle. But the pan has returned to where it originated -- Pugh Elementary School in east Houston.

This was to be the day the cafeteria worker from Pugh Elementary was to be given the pan in question -- the one that she discovered with the image on it. That's what HISD had planned to do, but late Monday afternoon things changed a lot. Now the pan is back under lock and key at the school until a solution to a very sensitive issue can be worked out.

Since Ash Wednesday, a pan has been on display outside a Denver Harbor home. The school baking sheet is ordinary except for the image that some people say is the Virgin Mary.

"It really is amazing," said one faithful viewer.

Behind the scenes, though, there was a tug of war. The cafeteria wanted the tray back and the PTA mothers wanted it left in the neighborhood. On Monday afternoon, HISD called.

PTA President Dora Otero said, "Taking it back to the school. They want it back to the school, so we're going to take it back to the school."

And so they did -- marching through the street, women singing and carrying roses. They reluctantly delivered the tray to Pugh Elementary.

The tray, we're told, is being kept out of view in the school office. A local church is said to have been asked for guidance on where the pan belongs.

For now, though, the tray is out of view and that bothers at least one parent.

"Then nobody sees it," worried parent Fabiola Salinas. "They already locked it up in the office and they were asking, 'Can we see it again?' They were told no. So that is my concern."

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