Religion: The Virgin and the Warship

Many a U.S. churchgoer was shocked last week by a stained glass window. The window, intended for the Roman Catholic Chapel of Our Lady of Victory at the Norfolk Naval Operating Base, had been designed by Wilbur Herbert Burnham, a famed designer of church windows. But this one was different. It showed the Virgin Mary surrounded by tanks, antiaircraft guns, planes, blimps. Instead of the Infant Jesus, the Virgin was holding a destroyer-escort vessel.

No sooner did the U.S. press publish the design than a storm of protests blew in on the Navy Department. Like Designer Burnham, the protesters were all Protestants. The state of Washington’s Council of Churches found the design “sacrilegious … an utter mockery of the sacredness of worship. . . . Weapons of war might as well be placed on the altar or pulpit as to allow this horrible creation … to desecrate the sanctuary of worship.” The influential Christian Century found it “rather shocking to see that symbol of gentleness and grace” holding a warship, but was thankful that “the figure of Christ does not hold the pivotal position. . . . If He were represented . . . the incongruity would be too painful.”

There was no Catholic protest, although some Catholics criticized the window as art, complained that the design was not particularly appropriate. Jesuit Father John LaFarge (son of famed Painter John LaFarge) called the window “unobjectionable.” “It does not mean,” he added, “that the Blessed Mother is taking a partisan stand, but that she feels a maternal concern for our men in service.” Last week the Navy ordered Designer Burnham to remove the warship from his design, substitute the Infant Jesus.