Attacks On Catholic Churches Soar to More Than 400 Since 2020
But critics complain that the Biden administration has done nothing to protect Catholic churches.
By Gary Gately
Across America, Catholic churches are under attack as never before, bringing shock, horror and heartbreak to parishioners and clergy.
Indeed, in the past four years, at least 420 attacks on U.S. Catholic churches have occurred, according to a detailed tally by the advocacy organization CatholicVote.org.
Statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary have been beheaded and had their limbs torn off, while statues of saints have been desecrated. Arsonists have set fire to churches. Swastikas and satanic and blasphemous graffiti have been painted in churches and on gravestones and American flags burned. Vandals have hurled rocks and bricks through church windows and left pro-abortion messages. Holy murals have been defaced.
But the administration of Joe Biden, America’s second Catholic president, has been noticeably silent on the rampant vandalism targeting Catholic churches.
CatholicVote, which tends to lean conservative on Church teachings as well as politically, says the Biden administration has refused to take action to protect Catholic churches from such “domestic terrorism” despite repeated requests that it do so.
Federal law requires the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute such crimes, but Tommy Valentine, director of CatholicVote’s Catholic Accountability Project, told The Catholic Observer that the the Justice Department has not prosecuted a single attack on Catholic churches and the FBI has investigated none of the attacks.
That’s despite demands that the DOJ aggressively investigate the attacks and prosecute perpetrators. The demands have come from CatholicVote and congressional lawmakers, including Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and U.S. bishops warned in a January report on religious liberty that attacks on churches represent the “largest threat to religious liberty in 2024” and could threaten “the very lives of people of faith.”
(The attacks have in rare cases involved assaults and a man who fired shots at a Pennsylvania church in May, but CatholicVote’s tally focuses on vandalism and desecration of Catholic churches.)
In January 2022, Valentine said, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta sent the organization a letter promising a "15-day review to ensure that all appropriate resources are being deployed to protect houses of worship."
Gupta’s letter came in response to CatholicVote’s request that the DOJ investigate the attacks on churches, but Valentine said the organization has received no further response to its request.
The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment from The Catholic Observer
A surge in attacks on Catholic churches followed the June 2022 US. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which eliminated the constitutional right to abortion. At least 259 of the attacks against Catholic churches have occurred since the leak of the draft of the Supreme Court Roe opinion in early May 2022, CatholicVote says.
Many of the acts of vandalism included pro-abortion graffiti, and some pro-abortion groups posted ominous threats on social media.
For example, pro-abortion group Ruth Sent Us posted on X just after the leak of the decision: “Stuff your rosaries and weaponized prayer. We will remain outraged after this weekend, so keep praying. We’ll be burning the Eucharist to show our disgust for the abuse Catholic Churches have condoned for centuries.”
Just after the landmark high court’s June 2022 decision, the Department of Homeland Security warned the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops of “credible threats” against Catholic churches and clergy.” The DHS’s National Terrorism Advisory System said “several high-profile targets could be exploited,” including “faith-based institutions” and “houses of worship.”
In April 2024, CatholicVote wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland, again asking the DOJ to investigate the attacks and prosecute the perpetrators.
The DOJ has not responded, and Biden has not spoken out against the attacks on Catholic churches, Valentine said.
He asserted that the Biden administration’s inaction in the face of the soaring number of attacks on churches reflects a double standard: “On the rare occasions when a synagogue or a mosque has been attacked in this country, we've seen immediate and vocal condemnation from the White House — and we agree no place of worship should be attacked. But when a Catholic church is attacked, as happens multiple times per week, we hear nothing.”
In March, Senator Rubio, a Catholic, also demanded that President Biden and his administration take decisive action to combat the attacks on Catholic churches.
In a letter to Biden, Rubio wrote: “It should be of highest priority for your administration to protect and defend any group from violence. Yet, your administration’s passivity causes people of faith across America to seriously doubt whether you are willing and able to defend Catholic churches and their parishioners….
“I demand you condemn the growing number of attacks on Catholic churches and make combating these incidents an urgent priority for your administration by prosecuting each and every offender to the fullest extent of the law. “
Rubio’s press secretary, Kiara Kearney, told The Catholic Observer that the senator has received no response to his letter.
In a statement to The Catholic Observer from his office, Rubio said: “It is disappointing that President Biden won’t condemn violence against Catholics and that his administration has not prosecuted violent, anti-Christian extremists.”
CatholicVote, some pro-life organizations and pro-life lawmakers, including Rubio, also say the Biden administration has aggressively prosecuted pro-life demonstrators at abortion clinics while those who have vandalized Catholic churches and 90 pro-life pregnancy centers have gone unpunished.
Pro-life demonstrators have been prosecuted and in some cases imprisoned for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, known as the FACE Act. The 1994 law prohibits threatening or obstructing someone seeking reproductive health services or providers.
But Valentine noted the law also criminalizes attacks on places of worship.
“It is disheartening and disturbing that our second Catholic president takes no interest in this crisis of violence,” Valentine said.
“There is a proud history of civil disobedience in this country, but we are seeing merciless prosecution against pro-lifers engaged in it,” he said. “Meanwhile, people who are often affiliated with domestic terror groups who burn churches and disrupt Masses continue to roam free.”
For his part, Rubio wrote in his letter to Biden: “Your administration has selectively enforced the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act to exclusively protect abortion clinics while attacks on pro-life pregnancy resource centers go ignored and unpunished. This imbalanced enforcement is despicable, and it undermines any notion that your U.S. Department of Justice enforces the law without bias or prejudice.”