Washington D.C. contains, very likely, the highest concentration of American public monuments of all shapes and sizes among cities nationwide. Following a long summer of racial justice protests across the country, many of which were accompanied by sustained campaigns to remove statues perceived as glorifying past racial injustices, surprisingly little conversation has been directed toward scrutiny of those monuments of the federal district, which seek to represent us all.
Recent news has been flooded with dramatic scenes of organized opposition against continued display of some statues. The ranks of these contested monuments have expanded to include far more than just the depictions of Confederate generals and southern segregationists that had commanded the most attention in recent years. Furthermore, the dismantling of these statues has increasingly been carried out through extra-legal means.
Statues of Christopher Columbus, for example, originally erected by Catholic Italian-American communities in celebration of their ethnic heritage, have been a focus of such destruction. One in Baltimore was pulled down and sunk in the harbor, while another at the Minnesota State Capitol was hauled off its pedestal. A statue of St. Junipero Serra was pulled down, set on fire, and beaten with sledgehammers outside the California State Capitol in Sacramento, and a similar fate befell the figure at the center of Father Serra Park in Los Angeles.
These scenes stand in stark contrast to the displays of the National Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol Building, where individual states have chosen to display a number of notable religious and lay Catholics. Some of these statues have recently become targets for removal, which requires approval of the respective state legislature.
Contrary to its analogue in Sacramento, St. Junipero Serra continues to hold his cross aloft as a representative of California in the Statuary Hall alongside President Reagan, and no legislation has been introduced to remove the Franciscan “Apostle of California” since the most recent attempt was struck down in 2015. Governor Jerry Brown said at the time, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, that the statue would stand “until the end of time.” Bishop Salvatore Cordileone said in June, in an opinion contribution to The Washington Post, that Serra “represents the true spirit of a church identified with the poor and outcast” and that heroes like him “still deserve our esteem.”
The Statuary Hall’s other canonized saint, Fr. Damien of Molokai, is represented by one of the chamber’s more unusual sculptures, fashioned by Venezuelan Pop artist Marisol Escobar. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, in a July Instagram story, claimed that the statue was representative of “patriarchy and white supremacist culture” as an example of glorifying “colonizers and settlers.” Her comments prompted Bishop Barron of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to post a video defending the manner in which the Belgian priest “utterly gave himself to the people” of the island leper colony.
These saints represent only a small fraction of the Catholics represented in the Statuary Hall, however. Fr. Eusebius Kino, a Jesuit who founded several prominent missions in Southern Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, represents the state of Arizona. The prolific traveler, evangelizer, and writer was declared venerable by Pope Francis on July 10, 2020. His northern counterpart, the French Jesuit and explorer Fr. Jacques Marquette, S.J. has represented Wisconsin in the Capitol since 1896. Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart, S.P., a Canadian sister who designed and built a number of schools and hospitals in Washington, is memorialized in prayer in her 1977 statue.
There are more lay Catholic individuals represented in the Statuary Hall, totaling around nine. Notable among these individuals is Marylander Charles Carroll, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Oregonian John McLoughlin, Superintendent of Fort Vancouver in the early 19th century. A state commission in 2015 recommended that McLaughlin be removed to make room for other individuals, and memorialization of Carroll is likely to face reconsideration as a result of his extensive slaveholding operations.
While Statuary Hall exists primarily for states to put forward their greatest luminaries, the display presents Catholics with a chance to understand the history of the Faith in America through notable individuals, regardless of whether the whole of society recognizes their respective contributions. State legislatures should be expected to exercise their authority to evaluate and replace statues as they see fit for representing their constituents; it is up to Catholics, meanwhile, to assert the merits of the notable Catholic founders, builders, and evangelizers, anchored in Statuary Hall to represent the values of the nation as a whole. The individuals behind the statues deserve to be understood within their own historical context, and their actions must be judged according to the principles of the Catholic faith.
Featured image courtesy of Sue Waters via Flickr
- Boston College Tree Stump Returns to Catholic Roots: Strategically Planning Catholic Art Expansion on Campus - April 30, 2021
- Encounters: Inspiration & Conversion on View in Carney Hall - March 26, 2021
- Angels Unawares: An Interview with Melodie Wyttenbach - November 26, 2020
Questions regarding St. Junipero Serra and California mission history? Visit Missions1769.com.