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Thread: In Poland, where homophobia is rampant, LGBT people are on trial for "desecrating" a copy of the Black Madonna. But Mary is for everyone, including LGBT people, and there is a long history of portraying her as part of different faith communities... https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/01/14/lbgt-icon-catholic-poland-trial-239716
She is especially important to communities that have been persecuted or marginalized. For example, Father John Giuliani, who died recently, often portrayed her as a Native American woman, with Native American references and symbols prominent in his paintings....
Mary is often portrayed as a woman of color (which she assuredly was) by the contemporary artist Janet McKenzie.
Indeed, for centuries the Blessed Mother has been depicted as a member of communities in which she is venerated. Her image has been "inculturated" over and over, around the world, as here in Japan...
When I was a Jesuit scholastic, I worked with East African refugees who started small businesses in Nairobi, Kenya. Many of them were artists. My friend Mark Lutaaya, a Ugandan refugee, painted this traditional image of "Our Lady of Africa...."
The LGBT community has few images like this. So it is not surprising that they would add their own symbol, the rainbow, in a respectful way, to a beloved image of their mother.
How appropriate that she is weeping, for it her son who suffers whenever an LGBT person is persecuted
How appropriate that she is weeping, for it her son who suffers whenever an LGBT person is persecuted
Corr: For it is her son who suffers whenever an LGBT person is persecuted.
