Tuesday, January 9, 2018

At Notre Dame, students lobby for removal of Columbus murals, call them ‘version of a Confederate monument’

Via Billy


Some students, employees and members of the Notre Dame community are calling for the removal of a series of paintings of Christopher Columbus that have adorned the walls of the university’s main building since 1884, calling the murals Notre Dame’s “own version of a Confederate monument.”

The 12 murals, hung in the same hallway as the admissions office, depict Christopher Columbus’ journey and arrival to the Americas in 1492. The founder of the university, Father Edward Sorin, commissioned Vatican painter Luigi Gregori to create murals that would inspire, uplift, educate, and be “didactically Catholic,” according to a university pamphlet.

4 comments:

  1. Perhaps it's time to put "Catholic" back into Catholic colleges and universities.

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  2. I am a very proud graduate of Notre Dame, Class of ’64. I am also a veteran having served in Viet Nam as an Officer-in-Charge of a Swift boat.
    These paintings, some in the form of tapestries, are absolutely stunning. They were cleaned and redone much the same as the Sistine Chapel was about ten years ago. They help in making the Main Building (the one with the dome of Our Lady on top) not only a functioning office and class room building, but also a minor museum.
    The painter, correctly noted as brought over from the Vatican by Fr. Sorin, spent several years at Notre Dame painting these. They are part of the fabric of the university. Anyone, and I mean anyone, who feels they are inappropriate or that they give the wrong message or that they depict the Indians portrayed in several of them in a negative way or anything else needs to get their heads examined.
    I'll try to do some research on this, but it wouldn't surprise me that he/she/they are already sporting "Oprah in 2020" stickers.
    What a load of crap.
    Lou Masterson

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll try to do some research on this, but it wouldn't surprise me that he/she/they are already sporting "Oprah in 2020" stickers.
      What a load of crap.

      Thank you for the information and it's not the country where we grew up that's for sure.

      Delete