Assemblyman William Colton (D – Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, and Dyker Heights) is furious that the organization named SHE BUILT NYC, Chair McCray and four of the panel members who serve on Mayor De Blasio’s statues committee, have rejected the public’s choice to build the statue of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, even though it has received 219 votes - more than any other nominee. First, Mayor De Blasio and his administration decided that they might remove the statue of Christopher Columbus. Now we have the whole ordeal with the St. Frances Xavier Cabrini monument. Italian Americans feel that they have been discriminated against by the bureaucratic administration.

“Sister Frances Xavier Cabrini came to the United States in 1889. She founded 67 institutions within 35 years, including orphanages, schools, and hospitals, dedicated to caring for the poor, uneducated, sick, and abandoned. Her institutions were spread out in places all over the United States, including New York, Colorado, and Illinois. Sister Frances Cabrini has been known as the Patron Saint of Immigrants. The iconic Sister Frances Cabrini monument is well deserved to be built in our city”, Colton stated.

“I, together with the worshippers of the St. Frances Cabrini Church in Bensonhurst, demand that Mrs. McCray and her panel members honor the public’s choice to build the monument of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini,” Colton added.