Wave of church attacks

Richard A. Sokerka

Attacks on houses of worship have continued all around the country over the summer and into the fall with little coverage of this vandalism on religious institutions being reported in the secular media.

In September, for example, statues were toppled and destroyed at churches and cathedrals in Utah, New York and Texas. Acts of arson were suspected, investigated or determined at churches in Florida, Boston and California over the summer and statues at other churches were vandalized in Tennessee, California and Colorado.

To try to put an end to this assault on religion, Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, chair of the U.S. bishops’ religious freedom committee, joined other religious leaders in a letter to congressional leaders asking for more funding of a federal security grant program for non-profits for better protection of houses of worship.

“Our sacred spaces have been desecrated,” Archbishop Wenski and other Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh leaders said in their letter. “We believe that all people ought to be free from fear when gathering for religious worship and service.”

FBI director Christopher Wray, in his testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee on Sept. 24, said that houses of worship are increasingly becoming preferred targets by “lone wolf” attackers. “Many of these attackers choose targets which recently have more and more included large public gatherings and houses of worship,” Wray reported.

Archbishop Wenski and the other religious leaders asked that funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program be quadrupled to $360 million in 2021. The program enables beneficiaries to make security improvements, such as training or emergency planning, upgrading security systems or making renovations. Sadly, only one-third of applications considered for the program were funded in the 2019 fiscal year, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“At a time of increasing extremism and antagonism toward different religious groups and religion in general, we believe significant increased funding for this important government program in fiscal year 2021 is imperative,” the letter stated.

According to a recent EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research poll, more than 60 percent of Catholics surveyed said they were “very concerned” about churches being vandalized. It is our hope that same concern is felt by members of Congress and that the Nonprofit Security Grant Program will be expanded to help to put an end to these evil attacks on our right to worship.