The following is a Catholic Action League of Massachusetts press release…
The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today is hailing the decision of the Worcester City Council to retain the statue of Christopher Columbus in front of Union Station, in the Commonwealth’s second largest city.
The Council voted last night, by a margin of 8 to 2, to file, or effectively table, an order by District 4 Councilor Sarai Rivera to remove the statue. The proposed removal was met with overwhelming opposition from Worcester’s Italian-American community.
The statue, erected to honor “the navigator, explorer, apostle and discoverer of America,” was vandalized on June 23rd. Rivera claimed the statue represented “complicity in white privilege, colonialism and systemic racism.”
In Boston, Mayor Marty Walsh removed a Carrara marble statue of Columbus from Christopher Columbus Park in the city’s North End, after it was decapitated on June 10th.
The Catholic Action League hailed the Worcester vote as “a courageous act, which preserves this country’s heritage and which demonstrates respect for the sensibilities of Italian American Catholics.”
Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle made the following comment: “Last night’s vote was a victory for sanity and patriotism over rage and hatred for America’s past and for its Christian foundations. Councilor Rivera claims Columbus represents ‘hate.’ Despite revisionist assertions however, there is no evidence that Columbus hated or intended harm to anyone.”
“The only hatred in evidence is the manifest loathing and contempt which left wing extremists have for the achievements of Western Civilization and for the culture and history of the United States of America. The mob has been resorting to shock and awe tactics to effect a cultural and political revolution in this country. Worcester, last night, taught us a different lesson: Just say no!”
Statue of Christopher Columbus at Union Station in Worcester, Mass. (detail of photo from Gargoyles and Grotesques).
