Lemonbeam, this is a fascinating question you posted. I am reasonably new to this forum type debate but have entered into it as an education into how Catholics react to such questions you asked above, for it, and many others posted on this forum, are directly related to the battle of Principalities and Powers, the Galileo affair and the Copernican revolution that in my opinion left the Catholic Church of today no more than an empty shell in many spheres…
I also note that the same names keep cropping up on all such related threads making sure nobody finds out the truth of these things, making sure all stay on the revisionist route choosen by the Copernicans who took over the Church from 1741.
Your friend is in fact correct in his assessment of St Peter’s Square. It is a physical manifestation of the Copernican heresy, the only formal heresy defined and declared by the Church that was fully adopted into the Church as orthodox. It is a physical and symbolic representation of the DEVIL at the doors of the Church. If any want a history of this phallic obilisk that now dominates one of the most visited places in all Christendom I will provide it.