Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 25, 2020 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- A Catholic publishing company has apologized for its use of a Mormon angel on the cover of two Catholic publications, and is determining how best to move forward.
“Dear Partners in Ministry, we have heard your concerns, we admit our error and we apologize for the cover art on the 2021 Respond & Acclaim and Music Issue,” said a statement from Oregon Catholic Press published Aug. 25.
Oregon Catholic Press said they were “unaware of the association with the Mormon angel Moroni,” and that “we should have done more research”.
“We apologize for this embarrassing mistake,” they said, adding that they would “never knowingly use an image that is not authentically Catholic on our publications.”
The image in question, which was published under the titles “Angel VIII” and “Angel Moroni,” was painted in 2017 by Argentinian artist Jorge Cocco Santangelo. Santangelo was raised Catholic but abandoned the faith in 1962 after meeting Mormon missionaries.
The image depicts the Angel Moroni standing on a golden sphere, blowing a horn and carrying golden tablets.
“We are working to finalize a plan to make things right for our customers and to ensure this never happens again,” said the publishing company, adding that once a plan is determined, they will reach out to those who had ordered the books.
Tuesday’s apology is a reversal of a message shared by Oregon Catholic Press on Monday evening, when they claimed that the angel on the cover of the books was simply an unspecified angel. The painting, they said, had been “erroneously labeled” by other websites as being of Angel Moroni. Cocco Santangelo, Oregon Catholic Press said in the original statement, had denied that the angel in the painting was anyone in particular.
This claim was called into question when it was revealed that Santangelo had shared an image of the painting on his Instagram page this past April, both titling it as “Angel Moroni” and stating that the entire “Angel” series was mostly centered on Angel Moroni.
The LDS Church teaches that Moroni is the angel referenced in Revelation 14:6, and that Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith to reveal the location of the Book of Mormon.
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OCP’s cover art is usually lame, but that’s the least of their problems.
Should have used fr Martin or Sr semone.. OCP, the wagon wheel disaster for popcorn cafeteria catholicism..
Why apologise for a made up being by a delusional conman like Smith? A cult if there ever was one.
Me thinkest that thou hast misread the article. The apology is made to the Catholic readership BECAUSE of the reasons you state.
But, now that we’re on the subject, it’s fascinating how two very similar religious “types” diverge poles apart from the historically real Incarnation…Mormonism denies the possibility of miracles (all existence is only natural, anthropomorphic, and evolutionary, even God!), while Islam holds that all existence comes miraculously from a totally inscrutable Allah (to affirm even secondary “laws of nature” is to admit an autonomy outside of the only autonomy who is God—and this assertion is blasphemy!).
But, on so many other counts cultic Mormonism and Islam are almost replicas of each other…and almost inevitable to the human imagination—in the absence of Christian witness to the historical Incarnation of Jesus Christ as fully human and fully divine, not a hybrid but both natures fully in one Person. Now, about the similarities:
“Islam attributes a restored text—the Qur’an—to messages received by Mohammed directly from the Angel Gabriel beginning in 610 A.D. The founding prophet of Mormonism is believed to have been visited by the Angel Moroni, instead, beginning in 1823. The prophet Joseph Smith carries an exactly transcribed and untouchable text delivered on hidden tablets of gold. Islam’s untouchable Arabic script (Q 13:37, 42:5, 46:13) is duplicated for Mohammed from an identical text in heaven. Both religions (and many others) have a supplemental set of writings, respectively the Book of Mormon and the Muslim Hadith. Both religious leaders experienced initial persecution, the mystic Joseph Smith in Missouri and Illinois and Mohammed at Mecca. Both migrated to a selected new base of operations, Joseph Smith west to Salt Lake and Mohammed north to Medina. Islam is preached first to the tribes of Arabia, while Mormonism initially saw its mission among the indigenous tribes of North America. Mormons have believed that the American Indians are migrant descendants from the Israelite patriarch Lehi arriving via Arabia to the New World in 590. B.C., but do not reject possibly Asiatic origins [….] Mormonism, like Islam, claims to be a restoration rather than a new religion, and claims an option for ongoing revelation. Mormonism would restore a corrupted Christianity while Islam would restore the earlier and corrupted faith of Abraham [Israelite worship of the Golden Calf, and Christian “polytheism” of the Triune One] from the very beginning of the Judeo-Christian narrative. Mormon apologists refer to a universal apostasy by a Church extinguished under Diocletian and ravaged by later strife among Protestants. Islam is scandalized by early Byzantine Christian theological disputes of about the same period” (extract from Beaulieu, “Beyond Secularism and Jihad: A Triangular Inquiry into the Mosque, the Manger & Modernity,” University Press of America, 2012, Chapter 2).
SUMMARY: Probably not a bad idea to apologize for witlessly using the image of Moroni on the cover of a Catholic publication.