Pope Leo XIII’s 1895 encyclical Longinqua, on “Catholicism in America,” begins with effusive praise of the nation. “We highly esteem and love exceedingly the young and vigorous American nation, in which We plainly discern latent forces for the advancement alike of civilization and of Christianity.” What did Pope Leo mean by “latent forces”? Among other things, like Catholic missionaries and cities named after saints, he meant Christopher Columbus, who sought to “open a pathway for the Christian faith into new lands and new seas” and who planted the sacred emblem of the cross on American soil, as a seed of “mighty States” imbued with “the principles of Catholic religion.” Pope Leo’s Longinqua came to mind recently upon reading about how Pepperdine University decided they wanted to dump their statue of Christopher Columbus after a student outcry. Like the covering up of the Columbus murals at Notre Dame, which President Jenkins decried as part of the “darker side” of the treatment of native peoples, Pepperdine’s president called their Columbus statue a “painful reminder” of the past. One key principle of woke pedagogy at our elite universities is that we should be selective about historical memory. We must be careful to remember only those who thought and acted wokely. But the story gets better, and happier. Pepperdine planned to shuffle the statue of Columbus off to Italy when last year, in the nick of time, Thomas Aquinas College quietly asked if they could have the statue. Pepperdine released this statement, which was published by The College Fixyesterday: