I don’t have a problem with the concept or the symbolism, but I don’t like the picture.
When I was looking at the two sides of the face I thought of the quote I heard somewhere.
“While we are alive Christ is perfect mercy.” (Smiling eye side)
“At the moment of our death Christ is perfect justice.” (Determining eye side or I might call it the judgmental eye that can see all things.)
I'm with you on this. The symbolism is all fine, as Msgr. Pope argues. But I don't think the look of the face and some of the colors are sufficiently traditional. (The red robe, for instance, seems like the wrong color red.) It's based on Byzantine icons, but it doesn't much look like one to me.
That said, Christ in Judgment certainly seems suitable for a Basilica in D.C. at the present time.