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Baltimore’s Italian American community plans new statue to honor Columbus

Tim Swift | Catholic News Service

Workers in Baltimore relocate a broken statue of Christopher Columbus after retrieving it from the Inner Harbor July 6, 2020. The statue was toppled by protesters and thrown into the water July 4. | CNS photo/courtesy Santo Grasso via Catholic Review

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BALTIMORE — Weeks after protesters toppled a statue of
Christopher Columbus and threw it into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, members of the
city’s Italian American community are developing a plan to reproduce the marble
monument so it can be displayed in a more secure location.

Grand Knight Santo Grasso, of the Knights of Columbus St.
Vincent Pallotti Council No. 14535, said community members retrieved the statue
from the Inner Harbor a few days after it was vandalized July 4. Broken into
three pieces, however, it cannot be restored.

“Everybody was upset,” said Grasso, a parishioner
of St. Leo the Great Church in Little Italy in Baltimore.

“It was devastating because we had talked with the
city. We were trying to negotiate with the city two weeks before this happened
about protecting the statue until we could figure out what to do with it. And
the city failed us,” he told the Catholic Review, the news outlet
of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Baltimore Mayor Jack Young has denounced the toppling and
vowed the perpetrators would be brought to justice, but videos of the incident
show police officers choosing not to intervene as the statue came down.

Then-President Ronald Reagan and Baltimore Mayor William
Donald Schaefer dedicated the artwork in a 1984 ceremony that also included
Baltimore Archbishop William D. Borders. The statue had been funded by the Italian
American community.

The statue is one of dozens of historical monuments that
have been toppled or vandalized across the country amid protests demanding
racial justice, sparked by the death of George Floyd while in police custody in
Minneapolis.

Columbus, the Italian explorer, was once universally
credited with “discovering” America in 1492, but in recent years some
historians and activists have sought to bring greater attention to his use of
violence against indigenous peoples and his involvement in the slave trade.

Kaye Whitehead, a professor of African and African American
studies at Loyola University Maryland, said there has been an “active,
ongoing, growing push” to “recognize the fact that indigenous people
were killed at the hands of people like Christopher Columbus.”

However, Columbus has long been a hero to Italian Americans
who have seen the famous explorer as a forerunner to America’s Founding
Fathers. In the late 19th century, Italian American immigrants, facing
persecution and discrimination in the U.S., successfully promoted Columbus’
legacy as a way to reinforce Italian contributions to U.S. society.

“He’s become a symbol. So his own actual life might not
have been exemplary,” said Pallottine Father Bernard Carman, pastor of St.
Leo the Great. “His identity has taken a life of its own and goes beyond
the concrete details of his life.”

Italian Catholics also noted it was Columbus’ arrival that
introduced Christianity to the Americas. That’s the principal reason the
Catholic fraternal organization, the Knights of Columbus, bears his name.

It’s because of this history that Grasso disagrees with the
actions of the protesters and why his community took the trouble to retrieve
the statue.

“It had a lot of significance to a lot of people,
including myself,” Grasso said. “It wasn’t about the statue. It was
what it represented to Italian American heritage. So we weren’t going to leave
it in the harbor.”

Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus,
decried the destruction of Baltimore’s Columbus statue in a recent statement.

“While our faith calls us to be respectful of different
perspectives, acts of vandalism are crimes against all who cherish democracy
and mutual respect. The Knights of Columbus remains firm in its condemnation of
all forms of racism and violence, including political violence,” he wrote.

In the statement, Anderson talked about the Knights’
commitment to combating racism and noted that the Ku Klux Klan had tried to
stop Columbus Day celebrations and opposed Columbus statues simply because
Columbus was a Catholic.

Father Carman says he supported the general aims of the
Black Lives Matter protesters but disagrees with the destruction of the statue.

“I know that there are good intentions. Certainly, I
agree with the movement to say there’s still this systemic racism,” Father
Carman said. “But at the same time, there are elements that go far too
far. They have no plan and no idea. They just destroy.”

Father Carman said he has offered to give the new Columbus
statue a home on the campus of his parish as part of a small Italian American
history museum. He emphasized the plans are in the very early stages, but
putting Columbus on display in a private setting with additional historical
context may avoid future disputes, he said.

Whitehead said she thinks Father Carman’s proposal has merit
because the statue would be displayed in a private space and with additional
details. Whitehead said that without context and in public space, these
presentations can distort our history.

Grasso said there also are plans to erect a new statue of a
prominent Italian or Italian American on the plinth where Columbus once stood.

Father Carman said among his suggestions are St. Frances
Xavier Cabrini. An Italian immigrant, “she built schools, she educated children,
she built schools for native children,” he said. “She did tremendous
stuff and she’s a real Italian.”

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