“Bleeding heart liberal” “spout(ing) revisionist views of history and morality will bleed all over the Catholic Living forum”. “Rewriting history salve one’s conscience”. “Pathetic effort to wear one’s morality one’s own sleeve”. “Savage as morally unfeeling”. “Tone deaf”. “sad at best”. “Self righteous”. I just used a question.In the year 2318, here on CAF, someone will post a question, Why is Purdue University named after a famed chicken killer? After all, in 300 years, we will probably obtain our food from far different sources today, and looking back in history, raising chickens and then killing them for food will engender horror in the heart of some bleeding heart liberal, who spout his/her revisionist view of history and morality and will bleed all over the Catholic Living forum.
The Knights of Columbus was founded by a priest who, seeing that Catholic widows and children were often left to homelessness and starvation if the father died, founded an organization among New England Catholics, who, in a mostly WASP/Protestant environment were mostly Italian. Father McGivney picked that most famous Italian hero at the time, Christopher Columbus, someone the Italians of his time honored for his courage and foresight in discovering the new world. Someone Catholics at the time could identify with as strong and courageous, while the Protestant majority looked down on them with contempt.
Rewriting history to salve one’s own conscious or assuage one’s feeling of indignation is a pathetic effort to wear ones own morality on ones own sleeve. To savage an organization as morally unfeeling or tone deaf is sad at best. Unfortunately, it is the preferred weapon of the self righteous today.
Oh, and I’m cooking dinner right now and am busy. Would somebody call the Regents at Purdue University and tell them what is coming. Thanks
Indeed. And it is this that creates a challenge to the idea that Jesus and his Church in its moral teaching is ‘the same yesterday, today and forever’.Bottom line is, if taking someone’s land were to be grounds for posthumously disavowing someone, huge numbers of people in addition to Columbus, including many of the main characters in the Bible, would be on the naughty list, and we also wouldn’t have the world as we know it today.
I presume you mean the same since Jesus arrived. Before Jesus, the Church as we know it today did not exist, and Jesus radically changed the landscape of moral teaching with his principles such as forgiveness.Indeed. And it is this that creates a challenge to the idea that Jesus and his Church in its moral teaching is ‘the same yesterday, today and forever’.
So should not American Catholics respond to his leadership and cease the veneration of genocidal historic people?St. Pope John Paul II recognized this growth in view of the number of apologies he made for historic stuff during his time as Pope
So the individual priest and others who formed the K of C as a fraternal organization that offered insurance benefits to widows and orphans and allowed Catholics to have a service organization in USA similar to the Freemasons, which Catholics weren’t (and still aren’t) allowed to join due to the Freemasons’ anticlericalism in Europe, named their organization after a Catholic guy who at the time was regarded by all the non-Catholics in USA as a big hero with his own secular national holiday.The name of Columbus was also partially intended as a mild rebuke to Anglo-Saxon Protestant leaders, who upheld the explorer (a Genovese Italian Catholic who had worked for Catholic Spain) as an American hero, yet simultaneously sought to marginalize recent Catholic immigrants. In taking Columbus as their patron, the founders expressed their belief that not only could Catholics be full members of American society, but were instrumental in its foundation.
Yes, fully aware of that… at this point, we must be able to recognize that it is wrong. Frankly, it doesn’t matter one bit that “it was done that way”. That really has no bearing on right or wrong.You do realize that this happened in Europe, the Middle East, and almost all of the rest of the world, literally hundreds, maybe thousands of times since the beginning of Christian history?
How unfortunate to be complacent with anti-Christian behavior… and void of hopeAt the end of the day there is no way countries do business except by physical violence or the threat of it.
Why are you including gender and skin colour in this example?Most likely, but not absolutely?
I see putting young women in chains on the auction block and selling them to the highest white male bidder as absolutely wrong. I would not go along with anyone who says that maybe or most likely it is wrong.
Catholic teaching allows for self-defense.How unfortunate to be complacent with anti-Christian behavior… and void of hope
Isn’t that what happened in the American slave trade ? I don’t think it was black females who were selling white European males in America? But maybe I am wrong and there were black African females selling white European males as slaves. Can you give us an example of where this might have happened in America? I never heard about that.Why are you including gender and skin colour in this example?
Revisionist history aside, I know of no genocidal historic people being venerated.So should not American Catholics respond to his leadership and cease the veneration of genocidal historic people?
‘Venerate’ in the sense I am using it means ‘show great respect to’. Naming your organisation for someone shows great respect for them.Revisionist history aside, I know of no genocidal historic people being venerated.
For what?..My ancestors were Conquistadors. I honor them.
And it might be good now to change the name. Who is a widely admired American saint?Now in hindsight, maybe it would have been better if Father MacGivney and the others had picked a saint of the Church to name this organization after, but at the time Columbus seemed like a good pick because like I said, all of the USA regarded him as a hero, not just Catholics.