CNA Staff, Jul 30, 2020 / 16:01 pm
The president of Loyola University Maryland announced Friday that the Flannery O'Connor Residence Hall was being renamed, saying, "some of her personal writings reflected a racist perspective."
The hall is to be renamed for Sister Thea Bowman, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and an African-American.
"During recent conversations around racism, one of the issues that caught the attention of our community was the name of Flannery O'Connor Residence Hall," Fr. Brian Linnane, S.J., wrote July 24 to the university community. The school, which in 2019-20 had a total enrollment of 5,473, is in Baltimore.
"Information coming forward recently about O'Connor, a Catholic American writer of the 20th century, has revealed that some of her personal writings reflected a racist perspective. The building names we use at Loyola should declare to our students-and entire community-what sort of values we esteem and hope to instill in our graduates. A residence hall must be a home and a haven for those who live there, and its name should reflect Loyola's Jesuit values," Fr. Linnane wrote.