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COURIER L 12 IFE, OCT. 18-24, 2019
MOTHER LOAD
Cabrini statue scores state funds
Raising hell: Bensonhurst Catholics, including Ursula Agosta (left) and Rosalie Graziano
(right) are furious that First Lady Chirlane McCray ignored the winner of the She Built NYC
initiative, Mother Cabrini. Photo by Marcus Stevens
BY ROSE ADAMS
Governor Andrew Cuomo got one over
on New York City First Lady Chirlane
McCray and husband Bill de Blasio
in announcing plans to chip in state
funds for a statue of Italian icon Mother
Cabrini, after the mayor’s wife snubbed
the beloved saint during a statue-building
contest to honor women.
“We are also pleased to announce
that we are going to build a statue to
Mother Cabrini,” Cuomo said at a
press conference during Monday’s Columbus
Day Parade. “She is certainly
deserving of a statue and we will be
working with Bishop DiMarzio and
the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens,
and the Columbus Citizens Foundation,
Angelo Vivolo is here with us today.”
The governor — who on Tuesday
dropped the N-bomb in discussing
discrimination against Italian Americans
with WAMC host Alan Chartock
— claimed that he would pitch in
taxpayer money for the statue, which
would supplement contributions from
the Italian-American organization,
Columbus Citizens Foundation, and
the Diocese and Brooklyn, which have
already raised funds for the monument.
The controversy surrounding the
20th-century saint and Italian icon
erupted in late August, when Catholic
members of St. Frances Cabrini
Church in Bensonhurst pooled their
votes to nab a top spot for the holy lady
in a public statue building competition
organized by McCray.
But despite winning more votes
than any other nominee during the
First Lady’s “She Built NYC” initiative,
McCray snubbed Cabrini by
choosing seven other women to be memorialized,
sparking outrage among
New York City’s Catholics.
And what began as a relatively
small movement to honor Cabrini
has since ballooned into a major issue
for Catholics throughout the borough.
Two weeks ago, more than 1,000
Brooklynites marched around Carroll
Gardens in protest of the decision, and
the Brooklyn Diocese mounted their
own statue of the saint on a fl oat during
the Columbus Day Parade in Manhattan.
The debate came to a head when actor
Chazz Palminteri called into the
Brian Lehrer Show last Friday, where
he and Mayor Bill de Blasio dueled
over Paliminteri’s accusations that
McCray’s snub was racist against Italians.
Cuomo joined the fi ght the following
day, likening the mayor’s wife’s
decision to exclude the patron saint of
immigrants as an attack on the borough’s
Italian community.
“As Italian Americans, we must
also remember that we ourselves are
not immune from attack,” Cuomo told
attendees of the Columbus Citizens
Foundation gala. “The leading vote
getter by far was Mother Cabrini. Despite
that, the city commission picked
seven other women to honor, and excluded
Mother Cabrini.”
Still, Cuomo equivocated when
pressed to comment on McCray’s decision
to bypass the saint, claiming
that he’s more interested in building
a new statue than in pointing fi ngers.
“Who started it, was it right, was it
wrong? Who cares,” he said at a press
conference during Monday’s Columbus
Day Parade. “Fix it, resolve it, fi nd
peace.”