COLUMBUS, CATHOLICISM AND COURAGE
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FLASHBACK: WHY ARE LEFT-LEANING OPUS DEI ARCHBISHOP GOMEZ & FR. ROCKY’S RELEVANT RADIO MEMBERS OF THE COVID LOCKDOWN CULT AGAINST THE FACTS?
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MICHIGAN COACH AND EX-NFL RUNNING BACK MIKE HART, 36, IS RUSHED TO HOSPITAL AFTER SUFFERING A ‘SEIZURE’ ON SIDELINES
FOR COLUMBUS DAY, TURN OFF ‘COLUMBO’ AND SEEK GOD
THE BBC AND SUPERVLAD
FRANCISCHURCH: DJ PRIEST CELEBRATES ST. PETER’S DAY IN PORTUGAL
ROB ROYAL: THE SYNODAL “LISTENING” IS PRESENTED AS A PASTORAL APPROACH TO “ACCOMPANYING” THE “FAITHFUL.” BUT AS WE KNOW FROM RECENT HISTORY IN SECULAR CONTEXTS, ALL THIS IS REALLY A PRELUDE TO SURRENDER.
Columbus, should we canonize or condemn him? Well, let’s see what history has to say:
Between 1492 and 1500, the size of the world discovered and appropriated by Europeans more than doubled. The price of gold climbed without interruption, as did the slave-based prosperity and power of colonial kingdoms. The Iberians in 1494 signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, partitioning control of the planet—- for Portugal. all lands discovered to the East; for Spain, all lands discovered to the West (Brazil excepted). By 1500, the Portuguese controlled slave trafficking on three continents. The treasure fleets of the “Spanish Main” supplied at least 75% of the world’s output of gold and silver until the 19th century.
It was certainly not the Italian merchant sailor, Columbus, hired by Queen Isabella (Castille) and King Ferdinand (Aragon), who was responsible for annexing the Canary Islands (Spain’s private sugar plantation) or the West Indies, Central and South America (Spain’s silver and gold mine monopoly)!
When it came to religion, the monarchies hiring Italian mercenaries like Verrazano, Cabot, or Columbus, obviously left much to be desired. In fact, the crowned heads were precursors of the Protestants who believed in predestination of the “elect” (i.e. he who has gold already foretastes paradise) and in material prosperity, whatever and however, as an absolute.
From Rome, Pope Paul III (and later Urban VIII) issued an official “Anathema” and automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church not on navigators like Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci, but “on all the allies of Satan who traded or kept slaves, all those with an inhuman, intrinsically evil attitude toward the human race and who for profit deprive people of their liberty and property.” Paul III initiated the Council of Trent (1545) and Catholic Counter-Reformation against the Luther-led Protestant Revolt. But secular monarchs did not repent” they retaliated by making it illegal to publish this ban or proclaim the anti-slavery edicts in Europe or in the New World colonies without royal consent (which was not given).
Gerald Korson wrote that when “a nation began to coalesce out of the American colonies,…“Columbia” became the eventual designation of the nation’s capital.” However, when European immigrants to America swelled with Catholics, there was in the late 19th century an increasing backlash from the Protestant majority. “American Catholics were subject to discrimination, slander, ridicule, anti-Catholic propaganda and sometimes mob violence.” The Ku Klux Klan targeted Catholics, Jews and minority groups whom they considered a threat to the nation’s “Native, White, Protestant” identity; one of their demands became the non-observance and deleting of “Columbus Day.”
Korson said that within this hostile climate Father Michael McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus. They chose as the Order’s patron Christopher Columbus — “one of the few Catholics considered a hero of American history. Father McGivney believed the explorer represented both Catholicism and patriotism at the very root of America’s heritage, thereby symbolizing that faithful Catholics also can be solid American citizens.”