Denver, Colo., May 2, 2017 / 05:24 pm (CNA).-
The historical legacy of Christopher Columbus is tarred by bad history in the quest to change Columbus Day, according to a researcher who has focused on Columbus’ religious motives for exploration.
“They’re blaming Columbus for the things he didn’t do. It was mostly the people who came after, the settlers,” Prof. Carol Delaney told CNA April 25. “I just think he’s been terribly maligned.”
“I think a lot of people don’t know anything much, really about Columbus,” said Delaney, an anthropology professor emerita at Stanford University and the author of the 2011 book “Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem.”
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. At one point Columbus hung some of his own men who had committed crimes against the Indians.
“When I read his own writings and the documents of those who knew him, he seemed to be very much on the side of the Indians,” Delaney said, noting that Columbus adopted the son of a Native American leader he had befriended.
Columbus is again in the news in Colorado, which in 1907 became the first U.S. state to make Columbus Day an official holiday.
Now, one Colorado legislator aims to repeal Columbus Day as a state holiday.
State Rep. Joe Salazar’s 2017 bill charges that Columbus’ voyage “triggered one of history’s greatest slave trades” and created “a level of inhumanity towards indigenous peoples that still exists.”
The bill excerpts three paragraphs from the writings of Bartolome de las Casas, a Spanish Dominican friar born in 1484 who became the first Bishop of Chiapas, Mexico and advocated for indigenous Americans. He wrote strong polemics against Spanish abuses.
Bishop De las Casas depicted the Spaniards as “acting like ravening beasts, killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and destroying the native peoples, doing all this with the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty, never seen or heard of before.” De las Casas claimed that the native population of Hispaniola was reduced to 200 people from 3 million.
He said the Spanish killed “such an infinite number of souls” due to lust for gold caused by “their insatiable greed and ambition.” He charged that the Spanish attacked towns and did not spare children, the elderly or pregnant women. He said they stabbed and dismembered them “as if dealing with sheep in the slaughter house” and made bets on how efficiently they could kill.
Salazar’s bill describes these as “Columbus’ acts of inhumanity.”
Delaney, however, emphasized that the acts of the colonists need to be distinguished from those of Columbus.
Bishop De las Casas’ own view on Columbus is more complex, she said. Other scholars have noted that Las Casas admired Columbus and said he and Spain had a providential role in “opening the doors of the Ocean Sea.” The bishop thought Columbus was treated unjustly by the Spanish monarchs after he was accused of mismanagement.
De las Casas himself is not above criticism. He owned indigenous people as slaves before changing his mind on their mistreatment. At one point he suggested to the Pope that black Africans be enslaved as an alternative to enslaving Native Americans.
Among the critics of the Colorado bill are the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternity founded in 1882, which takes its name from the explorer who brought Christianity to the New World. Columbus was a widely admired Catholic at a time when American Catholics were marginalized.
“Scholars have long shown that de las Casas was prone to hyperbole and exaggeration, and the bill does not take into account recent scholarship on de las Casas or Columbus,” the Knights said in an email to members.
“The legacy and accomplishments of Christopher Columbus deserve to be celebrated. He was a man ahead of his time and a fearless explorer and brilliant navigator whose daring discovery changed the course of history,” the group continued. “Columbus has frequently been falsely blamed for the actions of those who came after him and is the victim of horrific slanders concerning his conduct.”
Isaac Cuevas, a spokesman for the Knights of Columbus, was even more forceful, connecting the move against Columbus Day to a dark period in Colorado’s past.
“Nearly a century ago, the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado targeted Catholics including Italian-Americans. One of the Klan’s tactics throughout the United States was the denigration of Christopher Columbus and the attempted suppression of the holiday in his honor,” he said.
Cuevas said that a committee hearing on the bill was “tinged with offensive anti-Catholic overtones.” He charged that the bill “takes us back to what the Klan outlined in the 1920s in order to promote ethnic and religious resentment and marginalize and intimidate people with different religious beliefs and ethnic backgrounds.”
Rep. Salazar put forward a bill in previous years against the Christopher Columbus holiday. His 2016 bill to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day was defeated in the state legislature.
“After speaking with the American Indian community and other communities, they were saying, ‘We actually never really wanted a day – this isn’t what this is about. This is about removing a state holiday about a man who engaged in genocide against our people’,” Salazar told the Colorado Statesman newspaper recently.
Columbus Day drew particular controversy in Colorado on the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the New World. Organizers of Denver’s 1992 Columbus Day parade canceled it at the last minute due to threats from radical activists with the American Indian Movement.
Columbus has been a major figure for Catholics in America, especially Italian-Americans, who saw his pioneering voyage from Europe as a way of validating their presence in a sometimes hostile majority-Protestant country. The Knights of Columbus, the largest Catholic fraternal organization in the world, took his name, his voyage and his faith as an inspiration.
At one point in the nineteenth century there were even proposals to push for the voyager’s canonization.
In 1892, the quadricennial of Columbus’ first voyage, Leo XIII authored an encyclical that reflected on Columbus’ desire to spread Catholic Christianity. The Pope stressed how Columbus’ Catholic faith motivated his voyage and supported him amid his setbacks.
Under pressure from some Native American activists and their allies, some U.S. localities have dropped observances of Columbus Day, while others have added observances intended to recognize those who lived in the Americas before Columbus sailed.
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.
She thinks Columbus Day should be continued, even if the indigenous peoples of America also deserve recognition.
For her, Columbus’ handling of the killings of his crew showed restraint. After his ship the Santa Maria ran aground on his first voyage, he left 39 men on a Caribbean island with firm orders not to go marauding, not to kidnap or rape women, and always trade for food and gold.
“When they returned on the second voyage, they found all of the settlers had been killed,” she said. The priest on that voyage wanted to attack the locals and kill all of their people in revenge, but Columbus strongly refused to make such a move.
She noted the explorer’s relationship with a Native American leader on Hispaniola, a Taino chief named Guacanagari. Columbus had very good relations with him and adopted one of his sons. That son took the name of Columbus’ natural son, Diego, and accompanied Columbus on his final three voyages.
Columbus on his second return voyage took six Indians back to Spain, but not as slaves.
“He took them because they wanted to go,” Delaney said.
[…]
They’re not likely to decrease given the Catholic Church’s newfound commitment, under Francis, to telling the world we’ve been lying to you for 2000 years.
And Europe fell into a deep sleep for hundreds of years…
And yet, the memory of how the distinguished Church and State and other stuff used to fit together…this, from Cardinal DANIELOU. A quote, a fictive parable, and an epilogue…
QUOTE: “Of course, there is a distinction of powers, and this world is not subject directly to the authority of the Church. But to say that this world is not directly subject to the Church’s authority is not to say that it is not subject to the law of God, of which the magisterium of the Church is the interpreter” (“Prayer as a Political Problem,” 1965).
A FICTIVE PARABLE: And it came to pass that the Church sought to fully engage the laity more, in both the domain of the kitchen, and in the external domain of the world (a very good thing!). And this last-ditch initiative was called synodality. But, the radically secularist world filled the vacuum with its politicized effluvium, and the world fell victim to such as “religious groups that follow an anti-Christian narrative.” And the shadow of minarets stretched across the landscape.
And, just as the overrun Hagia Sophia was adorned with Arabic script in the 15th Century, so too was St. Peter’s Basilica adorned with Pachamama in the 21st Century. And, when it was asked, “what does the magisterium have to say, there was nought else by silence and then the sound of an uncertain trumpet.
And, Alaric smiled, whispering in a German accent something about an der Synodal Weg. Emperor Napoleon, too, who had confided his religious pluralism thusly: “They will say that I am a papist—I am no such thing. I was a Mahomedan in Egypt—I will be a Catholic here, for the good of the people. I do not believe in forms of religion, but in the existence of God” (Walter Scott, “Life of Napoleon: Emperor of the French,” Vol II, 1832).
What once was the cultural event called Europe, and the coherence of Faith & Reason, and even the transitory idiom of nation-states, faded from history. Engulfed by vaporous drugs, massive migrations, the turmoil of identity politics, and obsolesced families— all gone with the wind.
And, the perennial and universal Catholic Church, too, succumbed to the “smoke of Satan.” The center did not hold, and the merciless (!) march of history repeated itself. The syncretic mystery religions of the late Roman Empire cross-dressed into a polyhedral, open-bar, welcoming, amnesiac, and dhimmi sort of thing—now shorn of both the laity and Danielou’s intact and consistent magisterium.
EPILOGUE: But it also came to pass that there was a dispersal of cardinalates far beyond what once had been the West, and as far as Mongolia. Such was the historical irony of the real Holy Spirit. And, it came to pass that there was theological hope as outposts of the Benedict Option encircled the globe—like mustard seeds on the wind.
Anti Christian Hate Crimes and moreover anti Catholic Hate Crimes has been seemingly forever ignored by the media. The hate is not just in the crimes but in the souls of the media and securer intellectual class. The hates crimes are essentially the result drowning of the culture with Christian hate by the secularist in all sectors of society from all forms of the media and educational institutions. This is an issue that is essentially not discussed.
They destroyed a beautiful statue of Our Lady in Fort Myers, Florida and the sacrament of reconciliation room. This is not just in Europe. They were caught and arrested. Put on your armor.
I am appalled, but not surprised that our religious right to live in peace is being subject to violence. Satan is winning in Europe and the world.
Just imagine our viral political scene. Hate is out in the open. I cannot ignore the continuing damage Trump has caused with his MAGA radicals. He has an openly fierce hatred for Nancy Pelosi and many of his supposed “no-Trumper”. He recently showed that hate when he punned “what happened to Paul Pelosi? Did anyone see him lately?” E. Jean Carroll who succeded in his rape case, “she’s a wackjob”. Special council Jack Smith is “deranged”. Former AG Barr is a “fat pig”.
His vitriol often spews with hatred and lying. In particular, I am more concerned about the children who may be exposed and influenced by his hateful diatribe.
God save our precious children, the nation and the world from HATRED.
Yes, and you might want to examine your own heart and address the profound hatred and self-righteousness that resides there, as demonstrated by the words and spirit of your post. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Dear Athanasius. We were directed by my mom, “no lies and never harbor hate for anyone”. I am a Catholic realist. I don’t HATE Trump. I do take serious issue with his un-Christian diatribe and, “in broad daylight”, his threats to families and his autocratic intent to return to power. Seems that you are defending Trump? We don’t have the bully pulpit. The main reason Trump is left to defy the constitution is our complicit silence.
God bless.
This wasn’t an article about Trump but, in case it eluded you, about anti-catholic hatred.
Furthermore your rant about Trump and your so-called “MAGA radicals” effectively does as much to spread hatred as your flimsy characterization of Trump and his supporters.
But I must commend you for your hitting all the leftist talking-points. Before you know it, you’ll be ready to take your place among the “news” readers in major media.
Dear Deacon. Please read my response to Athanasius. Hope this helps.
Thank you.
Ice cream Nancy? ok then
It does seem from your posts that your hatred of Trump is loud and clear. And again seems to rely on the old standby of the uninformed, regarding ” mean tweets”, as if tHAT is the most dangerous thing we have to face in the world. It’s not. Trump is often correct, if a bit too blunt , about the assessment of his enemies. And why tip-toe around someone who is trashing you anyway? I ask what is more dangerous? A man who calls someone a fat pig, or a president who allows dangerous drug dealers, sex traffickers and terrorists into the country to kill and injure his citizens with a shrug and then blames the other side for not rubber stamping their “plan” to let anyone in the world to enter the country that wants to ? An influx of christian hating muslims is why the number of church vandalisms are rising all over Europe.
Who is more dangerous? Who protected the country better? Trump, who raised all boats with his economic policy and made us energy independent? Or biden with massive inflation, and depleted oil reserves, and a military so woke it cannot meet enlistment numbers?. A PRESIDENT whose presidency is undermined for four years with made up and phony charges, or one whose foreign policy is so inept and reckless that enemy shark nations are circling the water around us? After the debacle in Afghanistan, Bidens only reaction in the middle east to more than 50 attacks on US bases by Iran is THREE bombings of warehouses. When we eventually sustain massive casualties of our troops, it will be because Biden refuses to use American power to keep our enemies at bay. Using it AFTER they are dead will not be helpful. One can be CERTAIN Trump would have used the power. To me the funniest thing is someone I know who recently indicated they didnt like Trump because he was “too mean” and didnt think Tim Scott could ever win because he was “too nice”. LOL!! Well, you know, give me the mean guy who will keep me and my family safe, because he is not afraid to do what needs to be done. I am voting for a PRESIDENT, not a saint. Too bad so many democrats swallow propaganda whole, and un-examined. Finally, I refute your coloring Trump supporters as “Maga radicals”. I was born and raised in a blue city in a blue state. Lifelong Catholic who toes the line in every way. Pro-police, pro-law and order.Law abiding, never used drugs. Suburban mom, Daily communicant, in church ministry, holding a post-graduate degree. Trump supporter. Be careful who you imagine to be the “great unwashed” just because they support Trump. Most of the women I call friends are exactly like me.
Have any of the beautiful historic churches that were burned down in Canada even been investigated ?
A Must Read article
https://catholicherald.co.uk/why-does-europe-ignore-the-crimes-committed-against-christianity/
Yet Another good article
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20171/jihad-on-churches-france