Today's Columbus Day - And I Observe and Celebrate It

Vivificat - From Contemplation to Action ^ | 13 October 2014 | TDJ (@Vivificat)

[Teófilo]

Peace be with you in Jesus Christ, the Captain of our Lives.

Today we celebrate Columbus Day in the USA - October 12 in my native Puerto Rico. I observe and celebrate it with pride.

Columbus is the man the PC crowd loves to hate. In my view, he did very well for a man in his milieu. He was devout, but not a "canonizable" saint, if you get my meaning. He did much better in his vital surroundings than Thomas Jefferson did in his. Yet, we tend to celebrate the latter as a paragon of liberty which he wasn't in whole, not quite. 

I lift my glass up to Christopher Columbus and to his valiant crew: may we always have among us daring explorers, discoverers, and missionaries in a single packet.

Read also from the Fr. Hardon Archives:

Transcript of Talk on Christopher Columbus - #1

Our purpose in these lectures is to develop our basic theme, which I call "The Catholic Discovery of America." Our focus will not be on the discovery of America, which is obvious. It will be on the Catholic discovery of America which, I assure you, is not obvious.

Christopher Columbus, The Catholic - #2

This, then, is our focus in this chapter. It is to see how God used a very human, human being, whose faith enabled him to achieve what most writers on Columbus do not recognize. It is one thing to say that Columbus discovered America. It is something else to realize that he opened the door to the most phenomenal spread of Christianity since the time of St. Paul.

In Defense of Christopher Columbus the Catholic - #3

There are few great men in history who do not have both their ardent admirers and their virulent traducers. Christopher Columbus is no exception. But there is one main difference in the case of Columbus. We can identify his critics by their religious affiliation or ideology.

The Blessed Virgin Mary and the Catholic Discovery of America - #4

If there was one thing that stood out in the Catholic Spain of Columbus' day, it was the people's great devotion to the Blessed Virgin. It was a devotion that took almost eight centuries to mature… I wish to speak to you about "The Blessed Virgin Mary and the Catholic Evangelization of America."

The Popes and the Catholic Discovery of America - #5

This must be the strangest title for a lecture, "The Popes and the Catholic Discovery of America." What makes it strange is that for many people, the last terms they would associate are "Popes" and "America." Not only that, but the last ideas they even want to conceive is the "papacy" having anything to do with "independent" nations like the United States of America. Yet the facts of history show that the Bishops of Rome had far more to do with the New World discovered by Columbus than most people realize.

Five Hundred Years Since Columbus: Lessons of the Church's History - #6

We hope to see what have been the outstanding features of the Church's history in the New World in the past half millennium. Even more pertinently, we will ask ourselves: What lessons does the Church's experience teach us today, as we begin the next five hundred years of Catholic history in the New World.

[Teófilo]

Blunders. Typos. Mine.

[miss marmelstein]

We’re celebrating it with an Italian dinner tonight. I made Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce, my husband’s providing the sweet Italian sausage. Add pasta and Happy Columbus Day!

[defconw]

Thanks for posting this.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

The NEW WORLD was going to be discovered at that time. If not by Columbus then by Pedro Álvares Cabral a few years later.

It was inevitable.

[Salvation]

BTTT for later.

[MeshugeMikey]

Enjoy a great Columbas Day!

[traderrob6]

Columbus was a true maritime visionary but lets be honest, Columbus Day to a large degree was a political move to placate the Italian/American community.

[cotton1706]

To those who claim that Columbus did not discover America, they should note that at some point in history, the whole civilized world suddenly realized that there were two continents to the west. The Americas were thus dis-covered, that is un-covered.

Before Columbus, the existence of the Americas was known to few, after him, they were known to all.

Whether or not there were people already here, or that the Norsemen were aware that the Americas existed, Columbus deserves the credit for disseminating that information to the civilized world.

[KoRn]

....As well an excuse for unionized and .gov employees to have a day off.

Who REALLY gives a damn about Columbus, or celebrates Columbus day? To me, it ranks right up there with Groundhog day in significance. lol

[Mike Darancette]

Leif Erikson don’t get no holiday.

[onedoug]

Columbus, and European society “documented” his discovery. No one else had to that point.

[Salvation]

Excellent links in your article. Thanks.

[Teófilo]

Start one!

Also, avoid no double negatives...:-)

[defconw]

That could be a lot of fun! Act like a Viking Day! Sweet! I’m for it!

[Teófilo]

I’m six percent Italian, according to my DNA profile.

So, that entitles me to say Yes! Today’s a Good Day!

~Theo

[Teófilo]

Fine, but first come, first served. :-D

[Individual Rights in NJ]

I care! Columbus was a brave man and a great explorer, and as another poster said, help bring about the DOCUMENTATION and public knowledge about the land. He did the hard work.

Anyone can show up to a place and be like, “Yup, here I am” and then go back. He said “Here I am, here this is, here is how to get there, here is what it is like, here is why we should care...” and on and on.

[defconw]

I am reading through the lectures and I am struck by the contrast of what Christopher Columbus wrote and how he is portrayed today.

[Teófilo]

Those who understand language only as manifestation of power and not as a true expression of one’s heart will never understand Columbus. Heck, they’ll never understand human beings at all. We have Karl Marx to thank for that.

~Theo

[Teófilo]

PING!