Body and Soul

The Catholic Church is under attack by radical pro-abortion terrorists who have rampaged across the country, looting, ransacking, and burning Catholic houses of worship. According to CatholicVote, there have been more than 150 violent attacks in 39 states since 2020. The most recent church burning was Sunday, (July 26, 2022) when the St. Colman Catholic Church in West Virginia was burned to the ground. The church was built in 1878 and was declared an official historical site in 1984. The church was already a smoldering ruin when firefighters from the Beaver Volunteer Fire Department arrived at the scene Sunday. The destruction was total.

In December 2021, Catholic Vote President Brian Burch wrote to
Attorney General Merrick Garland saying:

“We, the undersigned representing millions of Americans, are writing to voice our concerns over the increased attacks against churches, pregnancy resource centers and pro-life organizations in the aftermath of the leaked draft opinion in the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,”.
“In December of last year, the Department of Justice was asked how it was investigating the repeated attacks on churches in the United States,” the letter continued.

“The Attorney General was also asked to investigate those complaints and take appropriate action as is your duty. Since that request there has been public silence.

”The letter went on to point out the remarkable uptick in violence after the Supreme Court leak.

Since the May 3 leak of the draft opinion in Dobbs, those attacks have intensified. Two pro-life organizations in Madison, Wisconsin and Keizer, Oregon have been firebombed as well as a pregnancy care center in Buffalo, New York. Seventeen churches or pro-life organizations have been vandalized with pro-abortion or anti-religious slogans. Among those, a tiny Black Baptist church in rural Mississippi was spray-painted with depictions of rape, and four churches in Olympia, Washington were vandalized on the same day with phrases like “abort the church.”

A recurring slogan has been: “If abortions aren’t safe, then neither are you.

The signers of the letter pointed out that the “silence” of federal law enforcement officials like Garland “endangers Americans even more.” In recent weeks, police arrested a would-be assassin near the home of pro-life Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Within hours of that incident, another radical abortion group published details of the daily movements of another pro-life member of the Court, Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

“Since May 2020 over 150 incidents have occurred across 29 states and the District of Columbia at Catholic properties alone,” the signers noted, adding that under 18 U.S. Code § 247, the Attorney General is obligated to act against attacks on religious properties, as well as efforts to obstruct the free exercise of religion.
“We call on you to publicly condemn these unlawful attacks; to commit to vigorous efforts to prevent them, and to investigate and prosecute them; and to proactively engage with the affected faith communities to ensure their concerns and security needs are being met,” the signers wrote.

“We would request a meeting with your office as well as the Civil Rights Division to discuss what plans are in the likelihood these attacks will intensify.”
The letter was signed by CatholicVote President Brian Burch, Marjorie Dannenfelser of SBA Pro-Life America, Kevin Roberts of The Heritage Foundation, Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life Action, and many others.

In May, a radical pro-abortion group known as “Ruth Sent Us” openly called for abortion activists to storm Catholic churches during Holy Mass. On social media, the group even spoke of “beating” pro-life Catholics.

Earlier this week, a domestic terrorist organization calling itself “Jane’s Revenge” declared “open season” on pro-life groups. “We promised to take increasingly drastic measures against oppressive infrastructures,” the group stated. “Rest assured that we will, and those measures may not come in the form of something so easily cleaned up as fire and graffiti.”

A group of at least 124 House Republicans last Wednesday (June 22) sent a letter to Attorney General Garland calling on him to investigate such attacks as domestic terrorism.

“We write to express serious concerns over recent attacks targeting religious organizations and crisis pregnancy centers and request the Department of Justice respond with how its National Security Division plans to investigate these acts of domestic terrorism,” the letter said.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 8, 2022 / 06:00 am

The Department of Homeland Security warned on Tuesday that “faith-based institutions” could be potential targets amid a “heightened threat environment” in the United States.
The DHS alert followed an unconfirmed report that it had notified Catholic bishops of “credible threats” if Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide, is overturned.

In a June 7 bulletin from the National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS), the department responsible for public security said: “In the coming months, DHS expects the threat environment to become more dynamic as several high-profile events could be exploited to justify acts of violence against a range of possible targets.”

“These targets could include public gatherings, faith-based institutions, schools, racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, government facilities and personnel, U.S. critical infrastructure, the media, and perceived ideological opponents.”

CatholicVote has created an interactive tracking report of the 152 Catholic churches that have been attacked since May 2020.

~ Grif

Tracker: Over 400 Attacks on U.S. Catholic Churches Since May 2020

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