The handmade terracotta restoration of baby Jesus' head, on a statue outside the St Anne des Pins Catholic church in Ontario, has shocked parishioners and led to criticism of its creator, local artist Heather Wise.

The church’s priest, Gérard Lajeunesse, said the new head shocked parishioners when unveiled two weeks ago.

“It really is shocking to the eyes because of the big contrast in colour,” he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Website Sudbury.com reported that Ms Wise took it upon herself to answer the call of the church to repair the statue, after vandals stole the original head a year earlier.

“I was so sad,” she said, describing her feeling after seeing the damaged statue.

“My feelings were hurt when I saw it, because I thought, ‘Who would do that?’ It’s just not a positive feeling to see that. I said ‘I’m an artist, I would like to fix it.’”

Ms Wise, who learned to sculpt in college, said the alterations were only temporary and she planned to create a permanent head made of stone later this year.

“To do a statue of baby Jesus for a church is like an honour of my entire art career,” she said.

“I knocked on the door, talked to the priest and we’ve been getting this together, because we had to find out a way of doing it.”

Despite understanding the concerns of his parishioners, Mr Lajeunesse praised Ms Wise for her eagerness to help.

“It’s a first try. It’s a first go. And hopefully what is done at the end will please everyone,” he said.

“She did this out of the goodness of her heart.”

When confronted by how to handle the fallout from the situation, Mr Lajeunesse admitted “I wasn’t trained for this in seminary”.

The statue has been met with a mixed response on social media.

Someone left the cake out in the rain https://t.co/GS0v5MmMZg — Pauline Pantsdown (@PPantsdown) October 20, 2016

Artists' restoration of Baby Jesus statue turns heads



(Bears a striking resemblance to Maggie Simpson)https://t.co/JCYIGSjpHZ — J Wallis Martin (@J_Wallis_Martin) October 20, 2016

This was an actual attempt to restore a vandalized Baby Jesus statue in Canada, and it pretty much sums up how 2016 is going... pic.twitter.com/tnxSL21RHc — Tommy Tighe (@theghissilent) October 21, 2016