News From a Formerly Catholic Universiy

South Bend, Ind., Jan 21, 2019 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- A series of murals depicting Christopher Columbus' life and exploration displayed at the University of Notre Dame will be covered up, the university's president announced Sunday.
“Painted in 1882-84 … they reflect the attitudes of the time and were intended as a didactic presentation, responding to cultural challenges for the school’s largely immigrant, Catholic population,” Fr. John Jenkins, C.S.C., wrote in his Jan. 20 letter announcing the decision.
“In recent years, however, many have come to see the murals as at best blind to the consequences of Columbus’s voyage for the indigenous peoples who inhabited this 'new' world and at worst demeaning toward them.”

Carol Delaney, an emerita professor of anthropology at Stanford University and author of “Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem,” told CNA in 2017 that a popular current narrative around Columbus is tarred by bad history.
“They’re blaming Columbus for the things he didn’t do. It was mostly the people who came after, the settlers,” Delaney said. “He’s been terribly maligned.”

She said Columbus initially had a favorable impression of many of the Native Americans he met and instructed the men under his command not to abuse them but to trade with them; he also punished some of his own men who committed crimes against the natives.
Delaney acknowledged that some Native Americans were sent to Spain as slaves or conscripted into hard labor at the time Columbus had responsibility for the region, but she attributed this mistreatment to his substitutes acting in his absence.
And the Knights of Columbus have said that their namesake “has frequently been falsely blamed for the actions of those who came after him and is the victim of horrific slanders concerning his conduct.”

And since there are no Catholic issues to worry about....

 The head of the Native American Student Association of Notre Dame welcomed Jenkins' decision, and wrote to the South Bend Tribune expressing hope that the administration “will continue to prioritize Native issues on our campus in the coming weeks and months as there is still work to be done.”

Notre Dame University Develops a Spine

 This is surprising, coming from the formerly Catholic University....

The Fighting Irish have a bone to pick with Christopher Columbus.

Notre Dame students are calling for the removal of 12 iconic murals, which honor the famous explorer and have been on campus since 1884.

The students have reportedly teamed up with alumni, faculty and staff in an effort to get rid of the 19th Century paintings.

“In this era of political divisiveness and a renewed rise of dangerous nationalism, it is time for Notre Dame to remove its own version of a Confederate monument,” the group wrote in an open letter last week that was published in the school newspaper, the Observer.
“It is time for the murals to go.”

The letter was sent to university president John Jenkins and accompanied by more than 340 signatures. Many of those who signed it were Native American and chose to list their tribe.
“The 12 Luigi Gregori murals have adorned the main hall of Main Building for over 130 years, greeting millions of campus residents and visitors with a highly problematic vision of Western triumphalism, Catholic militarism and an overly romantic notion of American expansion,” the letter said, referencing the Italian artist and Notre Dame professor who painted the murals…

Despite the outrage, Notre Dame spokesman Dennis Brown insists that the murals aren’t going anywhere.

“No plans to remove them,” he told the IndyStar. “To try to remove them would in all likelihood destroy them.”

But the protestors seemed so REASONABLE!