A Catholic university student says a painting of George Floyd depicted as Jesus Christ is ‘heretical’ and ‘blasphemous,’ as students set up a petition to have it removed from campus.
Blayne Clegg, a junior at the Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C., called artist Kelly Latimore’s Mama painting ‘heretical and blasphemous idolatry’ after discovering it ‘a few weeks ago.’
“As students at the Catholic University of America, we believe that it is extremely grave that our university, the official university of the Catholic Church in North America, would cast another in the image of our Lord in this way, particularly for political purposes,” states the petition, which had more than 1,500 signatures as of Tuesday evening.
“No political or social cause ever justifies depicting another in the place of Jesus Christ.” The university welcomed the addition of the painting in early March as a conclusion to Black History Month.
“With the conclusion of Catholic Law’s Black History Month program, which boasted an impressive list of events throughout the month of February, the Catholic Law community held an unveiling and blessing of a new icon for the Law School’s Mary Mirror of Justice Chapel,” a March 3 news release states.
“The icon, Kelly Latimore’s ‘Mama,’ was created following the death of George Floyd and is evocative of the Pieta—a mother mourning her son.”
