In a large chamber behind the colossal
Doric colonnades four columns deep –
Bernini’s ‘maternal arms of mother church’ –
that enclose both sides of St Peter’s Square
is an exhibition: How Christ Was Brought
To The New World. There are extensive maps
and long lists of dates, the occasional
Christian martyr’s cross or chasuble,
and illustrations of happy converts,
but not a hint of the laying waste
to inconvenient cultures, the blood
and lamentation, the casuistry,
the theft, and servitude.
Pages:
By David Selzer