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Second ‘George Floyd’ Pietà stolen from Catholic College

WASHINGTON (RNS) — A second portray of Jesus and his mom, Mary, during which Jesus is extensively regarded as depicted as George Floyd, has been stolen from the partitions of the Catholic College of America’s legislation college.

The portray, which sits outdoors the chapel at CUA’s Columbus Regulation Faculty, changed an an identical, bigger model of the identical portray that was additionally stolen last month after it was highlighted in conservative media and the artist acquired loss of life threats.

CUA spokesperson Karna Lozoya confirmed to Faith Information Service that the alternative portray, which makes use of an inventive fashion referred to as a Pietà to depict a Black Virgin Mary cradling Jesus’ physique after his Crucifixion, was stolen Sunday afternoon.

“We’ve reported the crime, and we’re working with the Metropolitan Police Division to analyze each this and the sooner theft of a bigger print of the icon that was stolen Nov. 24,” Lozoya mentioned in a press release. “We ask all members of our neighborhood to please contact the Division of Public Security with any details about both of those crimes.”

The portray, titled “Mama,” sparked controversy in November when the Day by day Sign, an internet site owned by the conservative Heritage Basis assume tank, printed a prolonged article about its presence on the college. The article sparked an internet petition calling for its removing, and the portray was stolen from the college’s partitions lower than 24 hours later.


RELATED: ‘George Floyd’ Pietà stolen after artist receives death threats


In the meantime, the St. Louis-based artist, Kelly Latimore, mentioned he started receiving a deluge of loss of life threats. He advised RNS that on the time lots of the threats had been overtly racist or particularly focused Floyd, whose homicide by the hands of a white police officer in March 2020 sparked nationwide racial justice protests.

“Mama,” by Kelly Latimore, 2020. Picture courtesy of Kelly Latimore

When requested the query “Is it George Floyd or Jesus?” in reference to the portray, Latimore says he normally solutions “sure.”

“I consider Christ is in that picture, simply as a lot as it will be in a ‘regular’ Pietà — the European model of Christ,” Latimore mentioned. “In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus asks us to seek out him in all individuals, particularly those that undergo as George Floyd did.”

Faculty officers defended the portray after it was stolen the primary time. They urged they didn’t see it as depicting Floyd as Jesus — “That isn’t how we learn it,” learn a press release — and rebuffed efforts to take away it, citing a “no cancellation” coverage. Faculty directors promptly changed it with a smaller model.

However pushback continued, and CUA scholar authorities reportedly handed a decision on Dec. 6 calling on college officers to switch the portray with “different types of artwork that symbolize variety and produce forth illustration of the African American neighborhood in a non-political and uncontroversial approach.”


RELATED: Black Jesus version of Michelangelo’s Pietà divides Catholics on race and politics


Nevertheless, varied non secular leaders have continued to defend the portray. Missouri’s Episcopal bishop, the Rt. Rev. Deon Johnson, advised RNS final month that depicting Jesus as George Floyd isn’t sacrilegious however “if something … extra sacred, as a result of right here was an actual one who turned a picture of Christ.”

He added: “Why is the picture of a Black man who was publicly lynched such a problem to non secular individuals?”

Depictions of Jesus range extensively all through historical past, together with inside Catholicism. Various pictures of Jesus will not be all the time with out controversy, nonetheless: The Vatican’s personal Pontifical Academy for Life tweeted out a picture in September 2020 of a Pietà that includes a Black Jesus, triggering backlash from conservative Catholics in the US.

Fabrizio Mastrofini, a media supervisor for the academy, advised RNS in an e mail that “North American conservative ‘Catholics’” falsely urged the picture was a selected endorsement of the Black Lives Matter motion or a touch upon the continued U.S. presidential election. Nevertheless, Mastrofini famous the picture was, in truth, meant to be a “message in opposition to the racism” in all international locations.

He additionally pushed again in opposition to those that oppose altering “sacred” pictures, saying, “Catholicism doesn’t adore photos or sculptures.”

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