By Washington Times. It would be quite a stretch to blame churches for George Floyd’s death, police brutality or Confederate memorials, yet houses of worship and religious statues are coming under attack in the protest mayhem.
Last weekend, at least four Catholic Church-affiliated buildings and statues from Boston to Los Angeles were set on fire or vandalized. A blaze that gutted the 249-year-old San Gabriel Mission, once led by Father Junipero Serra, is being investigated as possible arson.
“Given that there were four attacks on Catholic churches nationwide over a 48 hour period, from July 10 to July 12, suspicion, obviously, turns toward the left wing extremists who have been toppling statues of Saint Junipero Serra and attempting to remove a statue of Saint Louis,” Catholic Action League Executive Director C.J. Doyle said in an email.
The focus on church institutions also has bolstered the contentions of those who say the protests are no longer about Floyd or even defunding police, but rather a radical reordering of American society fundamentally at odds with the U.S. religious liberty tradition.
“These folks have an agenda, which is to fundamentally transform America,” said Ken Blackwell, a board member of the conservative American Civil Rights Union and a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission. “If you think about it, Black Lives Matter has an affiliation with the advancement of an ideology and program of action that is closely associated with the Marxist ideology, and it has no place for God.” (Read more from “‘No Place for God’: Left-Wing Protesters Turn Focus to Churches” HERE)
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Outrage Over MSM’s Refusal to Cover Violence by Left-Wing Protesters Against Churches
By IrishCentral Staff. A series of arson and vandalism attacks have been sustained by Catholic Churches and their property across the United States over the last week. The Ancient Order of the Hibernians, the United States’ oldest Irish association, has questioned the “deafening media silence” over the attacks and whether the media “has double standards of newsworthiness when intolerance targets Catholics.”
Ocala, Florida: Anthony Shields (24) crashed his minivan into the church and set the building on fire while parishioners were inside preparing for Mass. Shields was later arrested and charged with attempted murder, arson, burglary, and evading arrest, after reportedly admitting to crashing into the church and then setting it on fire.
Los Angeles, California: Federal and local authorities are continuing to investigate the fire, on Saturday, that destroyed the roof of the San Gabriel Mission in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The Mission was being renovated as part of its 250-year anniversary celebrations.
Boston, Massachusetts: On Saturday, July 11, at about 10pm, police were called to the scene of an arson attack on the Blessed Virgin Mary outside the church of St. Peter’s Parish, on Bowdin Street in Dorchester. Plastic flowers in the hands of the statue had been set on fire and suffered damage.
Queens, New York: On July 10, the Diocese of Brooklyn announced that a statue of the Virgin Mary at Cathedral Prep School and Seminary in Queens. According to the Catholic Register, security footage shows “an individual approaching the 100-year-old statue shortly after 3 a.m. Friday morning and daubing the word “IDOL” down its length.”
(Read more from this story about left-wing protesters vandalizing Catholic church’s HERE)
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Police Group Wants Mayor De Blasio to Allow ‘Blue Lives Matter’ Painted on NYC Street
By NBC News. In response to New York City’s Black Lives Matter murals — done as nods to the growing nationwide anti-racism movement — two police advocacy groups are asking Mayor Bill de Blasio for their chance to make a statement of their own.
The groups want to paint the words “Blue Lives Matter” on the street next to 1 Police Plaza in Lower Manhattan, a refrain used by those in the law enforcement community calling attention to the dangers police officers face each day on the job. They also suggested using the area at Broadway and West 45th Street in midtown as an alternative location.
Those groups, Blue Lives Matter NYC and Standing Up for NYC, wrote a letter to de Blasio, saluting him for supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and his attempts to bring awareness to systemic racism, while also hoping they can get a tribute of their own. . .
The mural would be paid for by the groups themselves, according to the statement, and they said they were counting on de Blasio’s “unbiased support” for the proposed project. (Read more from “Police Group Wants Mayor De Blasio to Allow ‘Blue Lives Matter’ Painted on NYC Street” HERE)
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