IWKnights Corner for October 22, 2023

Did you know this about the IW Knights of Columbus? 

There are at least 5 Myths regarding Christopher Columbus - who, of course, is the person Father Michael McGivney (our founder) selected as the namesake of our order.

“Robert Royal has written an article below which discusses the outrageous claims about Columbus that need to be tempered by a sober look at the historical record.  At a moment when even George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are under attack, it was inevitable that the current unrest would also engulf Christopher Columbus.  His case is unique, though, because unlike the others, few people — least of all those who took turns stomping on his statues — know much about him.

They assume that he brought slavery and genocide to the New World.  Europeans did, of course, commit many sins.  But they did not introduce new evils; all of them — including slavery and genocide — already existed among Indigenous peoples, as they did throughout the world.

One person who knew Columbus personally was the Dominican missionary Bartolomé de las Casas.  He earned the name defensor de los indios (“defender of the Indians”) because of his passionate diatribes against exploiters of native peoples in the Americas.  Las Casas did not spare Columbus from criticism, but he also defended him against those who blamed him for all the disorders and violence that followed the first contacts with Indigenous peoples.

The great explorer’s missteps, he said, were the result of ignorance and misjudgments about how to proceed: ‘Truly, I would not dare blame the admiral’s intentions for I knew him well and I knew his intentions were good.’

It’s good, then, to examine some of the contemporary charges against Columbus in order to assess him fairly.

Columbus is often dismissed today on other grounds — usually by people who have come to hate “Western civilization” and, frankly, traditional Christianity. They want to blame him for everything wrong on these shores since 1492. Following that logic, though, he deserves some credit — and gratitude — as well, for the many good things that also followed his discoveries.”

“ROBERT ROYAL is director of the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington, D.C., and a member of St. John Bosco Council 12846 in Springfield, Va. His latest book, Columbus and the Crisis of the West, will be published by Sophia Institute Press this fall.”

You can find the link to the entire story (including Mr. Royal’s discussion of the 5 Myths) at on IWKnights9981.com/bulletin, facebook.com/IWknights9981 or twitter.com/IWknights and now in the Friday Flocknotes..