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.