Neighborhood Disagreement Over Crosses On Proposed Bridge Is resolved
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A neighborhood disagreement over crosses on a proposed pedestrian bridge over Lancaster Avenue is resolved, but one well-known Villanova alumna thinks there was something much more behind the public outcry.
The Radnor Township commissioners recently decided Villanova University was within its rights to place two metal crosses on top of the stonework on opposite sides of the bridge.
While some of the neighbors protested, one publicly claimed the university was shoving "these crosses in our faces."
But Christine Flowers, a Villanova law grad and immigration attorney, said something more sinister was on display - anti-Catholic bigotry.
Flowers addressed it head-on in a column published in the Daily News.
"This goes beyond issues of zoning. This is something different and that's when I said my little subliminal antenna went up and I said I think this has something to do with the symbolism that those crosses represent."
Flowers said the bigotry of those objecting to the crosses is no different than the kind harbored by those who knock over headstones in Jewish cemeteries or deface mosques.
