I thought from the title of this news story that this might be another vandalism story.
Some have never noticed them. Others want to get rid of them. But one thing is for sure: Everyone has an opinion about them.
Five swastika-emblazoned discs found near the roof line of St. Mary’s Cathedral in downtown St. Cloud will finally be replaced after years of debate and fund raising.
Tainted by its association with Nazi atrocities, "the symbol itself can never mean what it used to mean in terms of a decorative cross or a German symbol of good luck," the Rev. Steve Binsfeld said.
St. Cloud-area Catholics and Jews, among others, recently raised the estimated $14,000 to replace the discs on the building’s north and south facades. The work will begin when weather permits with warmer temperatures.
The cathedral’s plan is to replace the discs with symbols that would portray the "Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary" named by Pope John Paul II a few years ago.
Marilu Hornstein of St. Joseph celebrates noon Mass at the church on Eighth Avenue South whenever she has the chance, but she didn’t notice the swastikas until recently.
"I read about it in the St. Cloud Times, and I thought, ‘My goodness! How did I miss it!’" said Hornstein, a lifelong Catholic who attended St. Mary’s grade school as a child.
A Cold Spring Granite Co. artist whose son attends St. Mary’s Cathedral will design the discs’ replacements, which will be done in limestone to match the building’s architecture. [Source]
This is certainly some much needed renovation, but even cooler their replacing them with scenes from the Luminous Mysteries.
9 comments
I wish something like this would happen at the Shrine of the Little Flower. The unfinished mural on one side has the flag of various nations, including that of Germany at that time. There was butcher-weight paper pasted over it at that time, but it’s a shame that someone hasn’t redone the mural.
My parish church, built at the turn of the twentieth century in heavily-German Cincinnati, has swastikas on the floor.
There’s also a bank in downtown Buffalo with swastikas on the floor in front of the ground-floor elevators. They’ve had rubberized mats covering them for sixty years.
Don’t know if they are still there, but at one time the synagogue (!) in Appleton, Wisconsin had a few swastikas inlaid in the floor.
So replace the swasitka with remnants of the “luminous” mysteries, which defied the entire principal of 150 psalters to match the 150 psalms which I guess JPII could have cared less about. He claimed devotion to our lady, even saving his life, but why did he let the shrine at fatima become so desecrated with pagan hindu worship and then try to blame the bishop?
I would barter with the Jews and ask them to renounce their anti catholic Talmud and then take down the swastikas
Er, how can the Talmud be anti-Catholic exactly?
As for Fatima, I guess JPII’s incredible esp powers failed him and he didn’t know what was going on in Fatima every second of the day. And then he “blamed the bishop”. Imagine blaming the person who is actually in charge of the place, rather than taking the “blame” yourself, for something you had nothing to do with??!
Whatever next? A German pope?
Um… forward-swastikas are Hindu good luck symbols. So a lot of churches in the US in the earliest twentieth century were getting “desecrated with pagan hindu worship”.
Must be JPII’s fault, right?
Kathy
AS the Talmud was written in the first century, it referenced our Lord as a “sourcerer” and our lady as a “prostitute”. I dont want to get into these arguments as in a politically correct world even mentioning anything than can be construed and antisemitic gets one a label, while there are many zionists who speak and publish freely but unfortunatly our Catholic leaders these past 40 years are scared off. Take the time to explore the Talmud as it is after the Torah the primary teaching instrument that every young Jewish child must study. An exerpt is as follows:
The Talmud teaches that Jesus Christ was illegitimate and was conceived during menstruation; that he had the soul of Esau; that he was a fool, a conjurer, a seducer; that he was crucified, buried in hell and set up as an idol ever since by his followers.
ILLEGITIMATE AND CONCEIVED DURING MENSTRUATION
The following is narrated in the Tract Kallah, 1b:
“Once when the Elders were seated at the Gate, two young men passed by, one of whom had his head covered, the other with his head bare. Rabbi Eliezer remarked that the one in his bare head was illegitimate, a mamzer. Rabbi Jehoschua said that he was conceived during menstruation, ben niddah. Rabbi Akibah, however, said that he was both. Whereupon the others asked Rabbi Akibah why he dared to contradict his colleagues. He answered that he could prove what he said. He went therefore to the boy’s mother whom he saw sitting in the market place selling vegetables and said to her: ‘My daughter, if you will answer truthfully what I am going to ask you, I promise that you will be saved in the next life.’ She demanded that he would swear to keep his promise, and Rabbi Akibah did so�but with his lips only, for in his heart he invalidated his oath. Then he said: ‘Tell me, what kind of son is this of yours’? To which she replied: ‘The day I was married I was having menstruation, and because of this my husband left me. But an evil spirit came and slept with me and from this intercourse my son was born to me.’ Thus it was proved that this young man was not only illegitimate but also conceived during the menstruation of his mother. And when his questioners heard this they declared: ‘Great indeed was Rabbi Akibah when he corrected his Elders’! And they exclaimed: ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who revealed his secret to Rabbi Akibah the son of Joseph’ “!
That the Jews understand this story to refer to Jesus and his mother, Mary, is clearly demonstrated in their book Toldath Jeschu�’The Generations of Jesus’�where the birth of our Savior is narrated in almost the same words
Funny.. when I was in Rome, peeking around the catacombs and other old, very old places, I came across swastikas. Seeing as I’m familar enough with the Nazis, I was pleasantly suprised to learn that for the Early Christians the swastika either symbolized life or death, depending on which direction it was pointing. The Nazis took the direction of death, the Early Christians, the direction of life.
I’d have to say that the idea of the Church back in those days being taken over by Hindu paganism is slim at best.. ever consider that maybe they studied their early Church architecture and art?
I’m from the st Cloud Diocese. When I first heard this story, I went to the cathedral to see the swastikas since I had never noticed them despite numerous visits. Had to walk around several times before finding them.
Anyway, during my walkabout I noticed that there was another Nazi symbol–an eagle looking to the right. Surrounding this was an engraving of a bull (Hindu), a feminine angel (pagan/Wiccan), and a lion (obvious reference to the cat worship of the ancient Egyptians. Scandalous!!