By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A suspicious fire that destroyed a Catholic Church in California last weekend became the latest on a growing list of hate-crimes committed against the Church in that state in recent years.
California Catholic Daily is reporting that St. John Vianney Church in Hacienda Heights was burned to the ground early Sunday morning by a fire that officials believe was deliberately set. Bishop Gabino Zavala, an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese who lives two blocks away from the church said he was awakened by a neighbor pounding on his front door just after midnight. He ran outside just in time to see flames shooting 150 feet into the air. Rushing to the church, he found himself standing outside the burning building, watching helplessly as both the church and the rectory were burned to the ground.
The fire caused an estimate $8 to $10 million in damages.
Among the onlookers was the parish pastor, Msgr. Tim Nichols. “I was unfortunately here to witness the horror of watching our church go up in flames,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “The challenge is not to look backward. It’s heartbreaking.”
Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, told the Times that “this was very definitely a deliberate act.” Both the FBI and the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating.
The arson at St. John Vianney Church is only the latest in a string of crimes committed against Catholic institutions across California.
In January, a vandal spray-painted the words “Kill the Cathlics” on the walls of St. Boniface Catholic Church in Anaheim and St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Irvine.
In November 2010, Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Woodland was victimized by criminals for the fourth time since 2007. Thieves broke into the parish office and stole more than $2000. During the crime spree against that parish, a 60 year-old statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was destroyed and a Nativity scene was desecrated.
Also in 2010, St. Stanislaus Church in Modesto was burglarized. In a separate incident at the church, vandals broke into the church, knocked down four statutes of the Blessed Virgin and desecrated the sanctuary.
St. Rose of Lima parish in Maywood was also attacked in 2010 when vandals broke into the parish school, scrawled “666” on walls and drove a knife into the face of a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe. A police report described some of the vandalism to be “of a heinous nature, and in fact, consistent with a ‘hate crime. The suspect(s) defecated in the auditorium (adjacent to the kitchen area) and wrote ‘666’ on areas of the kitchen, and a cross was displayed in a sacrilegious manner.”
In April 2009, just hours before Easter services were to commence, a vandal or vandals decapitated a statue of the Blessed Virgin outside Santa Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica. In early January of 2009, vandals spray-painted swastikas and the message “Niederauer, Ratzinger – where is the love” on the front walls of Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in San Francisco.
In late October of 2008, a ciborium containing consecrated hosts was removed from a locked tabernacle and stolen during a burglary at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Watsonville. The thieves also stole a safe that had been bolted to the floor containing $44,400 in cash and checks.
Local residents commenting on the CCD story expressed outrage that the attacks were receiving so little coverage in the press.
“If these crimes were against a mosques or a Planned Parenthood clinics, it would be all over the national news. Since the crimes are against the Catholic Church, it will go pretty much ignored in the mainstream media,” said one comment
“My heart goes out to our brothers and sisters that have been affected by this latest hate crime against our Church,” another said. “If these buildings were owned by anti-god people, the media and the federal government would be doing everything possible to bring the criminals into court, but alas, it is only the Church, so no big deal; business as usual. May God have mercy on each and everyone that is responsible for all this hate.”
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Photo by Eric Reed of the Whittier Daily News.
