At one point, Fr. Stephen Schumacher of the St. Louis Archdiocese stood between them and the statue and tried to talk sense to them, explaining the history, that St. Louis when King of France had done good works for his people which is one of the reasons he’s a saint and the city is named for him. But the mob even tried to shout down a priest and showed they failed to understand history. They didn’t care what he had to say or the facts, they’ve been told to hate it so they must rip it down.

Nothing more heroic than standing, literally, in the face of the angry mob, with the calmness of truth. Notice how they also threatened the St. Louis Cathedral when he told them to go there and learn the history, one says, “Eventually, we’re taking that too, though.”

The Archdiocese issued a formal statement, defending the statue and St. Louis.

The Archdiocese said in their statement that the public “should not seek to erase history, but recognize and learn from it.”

They defended the statue of the saint and recounted his road to sainthood. When ruling Louis IX “focused on impartial justice, protecting the rights of his subjects, steep penalties for royal officials abusing power, and a series of initiatives to help the poor.” The Archdiocese also noted that Louis IX performed numerous charitable acts such as feeding the poor and creating hospitals.

“For Catholics, St. Louis is an example of an imperfect man who strived to live a life modeled after the life of Jesus Christ.” //

Claire Lehmann
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@clairlemon
· Jun 9, 2020
Replying to @clairlemon

Gro
ups of students at schools and universities appointed themselves as Red Guards. Many of them were as young as 13 years old. You can read about what they did here https://quillette.com/2018/12/18/the-children-of-the-revolution/ …
Claire Lehmann
✔
@clairlemon

A 1971 report from the NYT describes how sweeping the destruction of the “four olds” had been (Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, Old Ideas). E.g. It was common for Chinese homes to have altars to ancestors.
Red Guards entered homes & destroyed them https://www.nytimes.com/1971/05/19/archives/china-transformed-by-elimination-of-four-olds.html …