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Oh hey, it's a saint-statue controversy I have opinions about. Short thread. https://www.jta.org/2020/06/29/united-states/catholic-archdiocese-defends-statue-of-king-louis-ix-the-namesake-of-st-louis-who-persecuted-jews
Canonization is not a declaration of the perfection of someone's life and decisions. And there are some saints where we REALLY need honesty about their failures, cruelties, or complicity in evil, because the evils they succumbed to still persist.
The STL archdiocese had a chance at this honesty--a chance to show us St Louis's genuine, startling charity to the poor & ill, AND confront his Talmud-burning & targeting of Jews under the pretext of combating usury. Instead it only did the first thing: https://www.archstl.org/Portals/0/Documents/Communication_Planning/PressReleases/Archdiocese%20of%20St.%20Louis%20Statement%20on%20Louis%20IX%20Statue.pdf?ver=2020-06-28-090006-217
That does the saint himself a disservice. Cleansed and welcomed into the limitless light of Heaven, he himself now knows that persecuting Jews was not God's will.
If there's one thing a church facing a catastrophic sex-abuse crisis needs, it's willingness to admit the sins of our heroes.
Anyway, if you want context for the Talmud burnings, and for medieval French persecution of the Jews generally, this is an excellent book: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691090535/beautiful-death
(done now.)
