“Columbus and the Crisis of the West” with Robert Royal

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Earlier this year, statues of Christopher Columbus were torn down by mobs in cities like Baltimore and Richmond. In recent decades, some authors have questioned the legacy of Columbus. Robert Royal, Catholic author and the President of the Faith & Reason Institute, gave a defense of Christopher Columbus during a lecture at the Basilica on October 1. Royal is the author of Columbus and the Crisis of the West and 1492 and All That: Political Manipulations of History.

Royal clarified that he did not want to give a “full-throated defense” but added that Columbus has been unfairly demonized and that it is a topic that “very few people know anything about and that a lot of people are agitated about.”

Robert Royal is the founder and President of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C. and Editor-in-Chief of The Catholic Thing. He is author of over 10 books, including Columbus and the Crisis of the West and 1492 and All That: Political Manipulations of History. His articles have appeared in scholarly journals and publications including First Things, The Wilson Quarterly, The Catholic Historical Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Washington Times and National Review. He is a frequent contributor on EWTN and can be regularly seen on “The Papal Posse” segment on The World Over. Thomas More College in New Hampshire recently named Royal their first Saint John Henry Newman Visiting Chair in Catholic Studies.