“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,” Aquila wrote.
“As Catholics, we recognize that this is a spiritual crisis. We pray for the end to such horrifying attacks and for God’s love to drive out the hate in the perpetrators, regardless of who they have targeted. Yet as Americans, we also clearly see a cultural crisis. People of goodwill, whether religious or not, must condemn and confront the societal trends that encourage attacks on houses of worship — trends that extend far beyond religion.”
Since February 2020 in the Archdiocese of Denver alone, at least 25 parishes or ministry locations are known to have been the target of vandalism, property destruction, or theft.
Aquila pointed out that Catholics have not been the only religious group targeted in recent months. African American Protestant churches, Buddhist temples, Muslim mosques, Jewish synagogues and cemeteries, and temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have all suffered attacks of various kinds in the past year and a half.
Overall, hate crimes, which include religiously motivated attacks, will likely set a 20-year record in 2021, Aquila noted.
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