Samuel J. Aquila is the Catholic archbishop of Denver and an advisory board member of the Napa Institute, where Tim Busch is chairman and co-founder.
“Satan lives here.”
These words greeted parishioners and visitors on a recent Sunday morning at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver. They were spray-painted in blood-red text on the main bronze double doors, with further hateful graffiti, including swastikas, scattered across the cathedral grounds.
Denver residents were shocked to see the defacement of an iconic landmark. But the real shock is this: Archdiocese records show that at least 25 other Catholic parishes and ministry centers in and around Denver have been vandalized, looted, targeted by arson or desecrated in the past 21 months alone.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops declared the graffiti at the cathedral to be the 100th incidence of vandalism, arson and destruction of Catholic property nationwide since May of 2020. Yet that number doesn’t include many of the attacks that have been identified in Denver, along with countless similar incidents in other cities and states not reported in the media. You would likely have to go back to the early 20th or late 19th centuries, when an influx of Catholic immigrants challenged a mostly Protestant culture, to find so much public antagonism toward the Catholic Church.
Want to read the rest? Read more at the Washington Post here: Church Vandalism is soaring. Here’s why everyone should care.
Your email address will not be published.
The Napa Institute Summer Conference brings together some of the world’s most prominent Catholic and Christian thinkers each year to engage, encourage, and inspire the over 700 participants who gather from every corner of the country and around the world. This conference provides unique opportunities to build community, share ideas, and grow in friendship with some of the most effective Catholics leaders in the country.
People of good will and common sense have worked, peacefully and prayerfully, for nearly 50 years – often in the face of media contempt -- to right the wrong done by the 1973 Roe v Wade decision.
Originally posted by National Catholic Register here. For millions of Catholics across America, the next few months will surely be defined by a simple question: What do we do now to protect
Originally posted by OSV News here. Are you ready? Revival is coming! On June 19, Corpus Christi Sunday, the National Eucharistic Revival kicks off across the United States. Cathedrals and
Originally posted by Prime Matters here. The following remarks were offered by Monsignor James Shea in Aventura, Florida, upon receiving the 2022 Canterbury Medal from the Becket Fund for