Desecration of Churches Continues in United States

The year 2020 has been marked by a sharp increase in anti-Catholic activity in the United States, involving increasingly frequent episodes of vandalism and desecration.

At Holy Family Parish in Citrus Heights, California, for example, a statue of Our Lady was decapitated, and a sculpture representing the Ten Commandments, erected in honour of abortion victims, was desecrated on August 17.

A statue of St. Therese of the Child Jesus was also toppled and decapitated on September 13 in a church dedicated to her in Midvale, in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, and two days later the same was done to a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus belonging to St. Patrick Cathedral in the Diocese of El Paso, Texas. In San Antonio, Assumption Seminary was vandalized on September 24.

Incarnation Church in Town’n’Country, Florida, was invaded on September 29. Security cameras show a man, wearing a mask and gloves, breaking into the church and setting fire to some pews, indicative of a criminal intention to burn down the church. Fortunately, the flames did not spread.

China: religious persecution intensifies

At the end of September, the online magazine Bitter Winter, dedicated to reporting on religious freedom and human rights in China, published another accusation of persecution against Catholics. The report, from an anonymous source in the Diocese of Mindong, states that the authorities abducted a local priest, Fr. Liu Maochun, in order to persuade him to join the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA).

Fr. Maochun was said to be visiting his parents in a hospital in Guangdong province on September 1, when he was met by police and taken to an undisclosed location in the city of Fu’na, where he was subjected to interrogations and systematic torture. The informant also says that the priest was arrested because he was considered “ideologically radical,” due to his position as assistant to the Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese, Most Rev. Guo Xijin, one of the Catholic leaders who refuses to join the CPCA.

Gaudium Press news agency also reports other facts that indicate ongoing persecution against Catholics unwilling to join the CPCA. Among these can be mentioned an incident with some nuns in the city of Zhangjiakou, in the Chongli district, who were forced to leave the area where they had been working for decades under the pretext of “not being locals.”

“We would rather be arrested and imprisoned than fill in those requisitions,” declared one of the nuns. “After the forms [for CPCA registration] would be filled out, they would summon us to attend training classes in the provincial capital, where we would be indoctrinated with the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party, as they do with priests.”

Bishops of Canada and US denounce discriminatory measures

On September 20, the Minister of Health and Social Services of Quebec issued an order limiting participation in indoor religious services to fifty people in most regions of the province and twenty-five people in other areas, such as Montreal and Quebec City. The measure was a response to an increase in covid-19 cases in the region.

In a statement published on September 21, Bishop Christian Rodembourg, head of the Saint-Hyacinthe diocese and President of the Assembly of Quebec Catholic Bishops, objected to the measure on the grounds that churches should at least be given the same treatment as auditoriums, cinemas and theatres, which can receive up to two hundred and fifty people per session, since “the sanitary measures put in place in places of worship exceed government requirements.”

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco also expressed his indignation at the discriminatory measures adopted by the municipal government. While large department stores can function at 25% of their capacity, the faithful can only enter one at a time to pray in the cathedral. “It is because of our Catholic Faith that we are being put at the end of the line,” he said.

Karaganda church becomes the first Minor Basilica in Central Asia

In mid-September, the Catholic press announced the appointment of St. Joseph’s Church in Karaganda (Kazakhstan) as the first Minor Basilica of the country and Central Asia.

The church was built in the 1970s, when the country was still part of the Soviet Union. When it was consecrated in June 1980, the church became a reference point for the nation’s Catholic community. “During the time of communism, people travelled many kilometres to receive the Sacraments and spiritual support here,” the current rector of the Basilica, Fr. Vladimir Dzurenda, explained.

According to the Bishop of Karaganda, Most Rev. Adelio Dell’Oro, the title “is a very important recognition for the Catholics of Kazakhstan. It is a real Shrine, which receives many pilgrims because it houses the relics of Fr. Wladislav Bukowinsky, the priest martyr of communism.”

Holy Family Shrine of Goiânia is elevated to Basilica

Holy Family Shrine, located in the Archdiocese of Goiânia, Brazil, was recently elevated to the category of Minor Basilica. The ceremony, held on September 29, Feast of the three Archangels, was presided by Metropolitan Archbishop Washington Cruz. The title had been granted in February of this year, but it was necessary to carry out some reforms before the elevation was officialised.

Built in 1980, Holy Family Shrine is the third church of this Archdiocese to receive the title of Minor Basilica, the other two being the Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, also in Goiânia, and that of the Divine Eternal Father, in Trindade.

Carmelite convent in Vietnam commemorates 60th anniversary

On October 1, feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, the Carmelites of the convent of Nha Trang (Vietnam) celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of their founding.

To commemorate the date a Mass was celebrated, with the Diocesan Bishop, Most Rev. Joseph Vo Duc Minh presiding, and thirty-five priests concelebrating. Approximately four hundred of the faithful participated in the liturgical act. In his homily, the prelate praised the service rendered to the Church by the nuns, acting silently as a “lightning rod” for the sufferings and misfortunes of others.

Vietnam currently has eight monasteries with two hundred and sixty Carmelites.