Posted on 06/25/2020 6:52:27 PM PDT by ebb tide
MADISON, Wisconsin, June 25, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison, Wisconsin, said that “as a shepherd of the Church,” he “cannot remain silent” in the face of a call by a Black Lives Matter activist to destroy representations of Jesus Christ.
“I need to denounce such a call to violence and destruction,” Bishop Hying wrote in a letter dated June 23.
Shaun King, a leading voice in the Black Lives Matter movement, best known for claiming to be half-black despite both parents on his birth certificate being listed as white, had declared Monday that statues, murals, and stained-glass windows depicting Jesus as white should be taken down for being “form(s) of white supremacy,” meant to be “tools of oppression” and “racist propaganda.”
“Our statues, pictures, stained-glass windows, churches, icons, and devotions are holy to us,” Bishop Hying explained. “They are sacramentals, blessed and sacred, visible expressions of the love of God, poured out in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and made manifest in the saints. They remind us of God, His love for us in Christ, and the nearness of the divine.”
The bishop of Madison condemned the “secular iconoclasm of the current moment,” as it “will not bring reconciliation, peace, and healing. Such violence will only perpetuate the prejudice and hatred it ostensibly seeks to end.”
He praised religious freedom as a God-given right guaranteed by the Constitution. “We must not surrender our religious liberty to the voices that seek the destruction of our public presence, the diminishing of our sacramental worship, and the denial of our belief in Jesus Christ as the savior of the world,” he added. “Only the love of Christ can heal a wounded heart, not a vandalized piece of metal.”
Hying admitted he is aware of “some of the torturous narrative of violence and oppression against both the Native peoples of this land and the African peoples brought here as slaves.”
“In my opinion,” he argued, “the injustices suffered by these peoples over the course of centuries are two of the greatest moral failures of our country, with deep repercussions in our culture. We must study and know this history in order to transcend it, to learn from it and to commit ourselves to justice, equality, and solidarity because of it.”
However, “even the worst aspects of history should be remembered and kept before our eyes. Auschwitz remains open as both a memorial and a museum, so that humanity never forgets the horror of the Holocaust.”
He suggested, instead of having rioters tear down and destroy statues, to have “respectful discussion about the proper way to commemorate people and events, such as Christopher Columbus, the European colonization of the Americas, the tragic suffering of slavery, the Civil War, Confederate leaders, the Founding Fathers, and the evangelization of our continent.”
Then, “measured decisions about statues, buildings, and memorials” could be made in a civilized manner.
The bishop asked a number of rhetorical questions:
If we allow the commemorative and visual history of our nation to be destroyed by random groups in the current moment of anger, how will we ever learn from that history? Does toppling and vandalizing a statue of George Washington because he owned slaves, really serve our country and our collective memory? Would it not be better to let the whole history of our country be on full display in all of its complexity, so that we can value the patrimony of our heritage and simultaneously critique the injustices and sins of the past? … Should certain statues be placed in museums or storage? Perhaps. Should we let a group of vandals make those decisions for us? No.
In response to Shaun King’s claim of a white representation of Jesus Christ indicating “white supremacy,” Bishop Hying pointed out that among Catholics, “every culture, country, ethnicity, and race has claimed Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary as their own. Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to St. Juan Diego as a mestiza, African art depicts Jesus as Black, Asian depictions of the Blessed Mother, too, take on similarities of both bodily appearance and, often, cultural garb.”
He asked, “In this context, are white representations of Christ and His Mother inherently signs of white supremacy? I think not. Because the Son of God became incarnate in our human flesh, does not all of humanity – every race, tribe, and tongue – have the spiritual ability to depict Him through the particular lens of their own culture?”
Bishop Hying’s letter comes on the heels of a statement by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone on June 20.
Cordileone asked, “What is happening to our society?”
“A renewed national movement to heal memories and correct the injustices of racism and police brutality in our country has been hijacked by some into a movement of violence, looting and vandalism,” he continued, spelling out what happened during many of the protests.
Tearing down the statue of St. Junipero Serra, who was canonized by Pope Francis in 2015, “was mob rule,” the archbishop said, “a troubling phenomenon that seems to be repeating itself throughout the country.”
“Our dear city bears the name of one of history’s most iconic figures of peace and goodwill: St. Francis of Assisi,” Cordileone explained. “For the past 800 years, the various Franciscan orders of brothers, sisters and priests that trace their inspiration back to him have been exemplary of not only serving, but identifying with, the poor and downtrodden and giving them their rightful dignity as children of God. St. Junipero Serra is no exception.”
The archbishop of San Francisco went on to briefly recount the saint’s achievement in his life.
“St. Serra made heroic sacrifices to protect the indigenous people of California from their Spanish conquerors, especially the soldiers,” Cordileone wrote. “Even with his infirmed leg which caused him such pain, he walked all the way to Mexico City to obtain special faculties of governance from the Viceroy of Spain in order to discipline the military who were abusing the Indians. And then he walked back to California.”
“And lest there be any doubt, we have a physical reminder to this day: everywhere there is a presidio (soldiers’ barracks) associated with a mission in the chain of 21 missions that he founded, the presidio is miles away from the mission itself and the school,” he pointed out.
“St. Junipero Serra also offered them the best thing he had: the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ, which he and his fellow Franciscan friars did through education, health care, and training in the agrarian arts.”
The bishops of California, in a separate statement, failed to forcefully condemn the tearing down of statues of St. Junipero Serra. They only asked that for this process of tearing down statues “to be truly effective as a remedy for racism, it must discern carefully the entire contribution that the historical figure in question made to American life, especially in advancing the rights of marginalized peoples.”
In other words, as long as this criterion is met, tearing down a statue, and thus destroying public or private property, could be justified, according to the bishops of California, which includes the current president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles.
The bishops did not distinguish between the mob destruction of a statue and its removal after a political debate, where both sides make their case, and elected officials then make a decision.
Ping
Let’s have a “respectful discussion about the proper way to commemorate people and events, such as Christopher Columbus, the European colonization of the Americas, the tragic suffering of slavery, the Civil War, Confederate leaders, the Founding Fathers, and the evangelization of our continent.”
I am amazed that anybody is standing up to the mob, but he is a day late and a dollar short.
Why is this being allowed ?
and since Obama is a founding father and supporter of BLM ( which ignited this recent racial tension which started under obama's watch) does this not make Obama a terrorist who advocates the overthrow of the US government ?
“...does this not make Obama a terrorist who advocates the overthrow of the US government?....”
Does a bear not crap in the woods?
IF the Soros/Obama shadow govt ilk were ALL arrested, all of this crap would come to and very quickly.
Lives Matter!
If you need a color
in front of those words
YOU are a racist
It would slow things down for a while but we both know there are So Many enemies willing to step up and take their place.
Soros has Many trained to jump in when he dies.
There’s a load of folks trained by weather underground folks to take obummer’s place.
It’s a fight that will never end.
It would be nice if our side, besides Trump, would start fighting back.
Amen, well done, I have wondered how to state exactly that
It's amazing that Obama can get away with this. The list is long, Fast and Furious to the vegas massacre, Trevon Martin to Ferguson, IRS attacks on Tea party to the attempted Coup of Trump, Benghazi to the collusion with Iran,
the list is long.
Obama is attempting to destroy America and fundamentally transform it to a socialist s-hole>
Why do I get a feeling Obama is behind all this ?
Remember all-night adorations???
Why not build on the all-night concept, give it to the local KofC Council, set up 2-hour shifts, ditch the ceremonial swords, arm the Knights with AR-15s, and call it all-night sentry duty.
Each Church can have inside and (as necessary) outside sentries if enough Knights exist in that parish.
What is a more honorable knightly service than to defend and guard the Holy Eucharist , statues, artworks and sacramentals by deadly force.
Should the parish be blessed with an adjoining cemetery, the shoot, shovel and shut-up philosophy is a natural final solution.
“...Why do I get a feeling Obama is behind all this?....”
Because he is!!
His shadow government, with the financial backing of the Soros clan, is behind ALL of it.
one out of 200 US bishops, God Bless Him,
I can’t understand why anyone would attend a mass at one of these Churches that is rotting from within...
I am Catholic and NOT ONE bishop or priest has stood for our religious freedom SO as far as I am concerned if mass is really not that important to them I won’t be going anymore I will watch on EWTN as I have been!! I am so disgusted with what COWARDS they are!! We have become a country of utter snowflakes with NO ONE standing strong for our constitution our top generals have also become a bunch of pansies!!! Makes me sick to my stomach all of the young lives lost defending this and other countries to watch it come to this a BUNCH OF COWARDS!!
Yup. Unfortunately our Protestant brothers haven’t been very responsive either. Republicans have let the entire world down here...I fear America is already lost. We have PROVEN that we will not fight back....just retreat.
That makes too much sense.
You’re in trouble now ;-)
Why do we give so much attention to 17% of the population while they pis* on the society that provides what they seem incapable of providing for themselves.
The cause of attacking Christ rang a bell, does anyone remember Obamas connection with Islam in kenya, Bill Ayers, they were communists using the Vietnam protesters as their useful idiots, and his buddy john kerry, the Winter soldier, then black Panthers, Occupy wall st, Antifa, BLM, and its really all the exact same movement to overthrow the government.
How long before his boss, the divine Marxist zealot, reprimands him for speaking the truth ???
Frankie’s not going to like someone sticking up for the LORD Jesus Christ...
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