[DoodleBob]

I am a strong believer in the sanctity of private property. Thus as much as I empathize with and may be inclined to cheer on this act, theft is theft.

Indeed, reading through Aquinas' writings on theft and robbery it is hard to justify this act.

However, if we believe the faithful are in a "just war" then these statues may be fair game..but I am very hesitant to declare war on Mother Church right now. Why? Because what is to stop the modernists from sacking Rome when we get a trad Pope?

Just as Deplorables get peeved when some leftist defaces Trump signs, if the tables were turned and some Jesuit dumped a St Pius X statue into the moat, we'd be hopping mad.

Now, we've given ammo to the opposition, you know "trads are thieves, shut them down, arrest these miscreants, blah blah blah..." and we've given tacit approval for the modernists to strike back when they're out of power.

There has to be a better way.

[Mrs. Don-o]

About 35+ years ago, I heard a priest explain why going into an abortuary and disabling a suction abortion machine is not morally wrong, nor a crime against property.

He said that "property" literally means what is "proper" to a person, what he possesses particularly and has the legitimate use of. Inasmuch as there is no legitimate use for a suction abortion machine, it is not --- in the sense used in moral theology ---"property" at all.

He said that like a strategic nuclear weapon, an abortion machine has no legitimate use and has no right to exist --- the possible exception being, as a display in a museum of crimes against God and humanity.

The application to, say, pornography (an example used by Campion) is pretty direct. If someone put a pornographic magazine on a Catholic altar, we would expect any Catholic to remove it and destroy it, not inquire into who was the owner and would he please come fetch it and display it elsewhere.

The application to the Pachamama idol is perhaps not quite so exact, but

(1) It functions in a Church setting as a sacrilege, a violation of the First and most important commandment, and

(2) Pachamama is apparently now --- in 21st century --- the patroness of the Andean/Amazon cocaine industry, just as "Santa Muerte" is patroness of the Mexican drug cartels.

Doodlebob, if you found a Santa Muerte diabolical icon befouling a Catholic sanctuary, would you think obligatory to leave it in the sanctuary while the proper owner was located?

[Mrs. Don-o]

I think a better way -— at least, a more exactly Biblical way-— might have been burning them while chanting the Dies Irae -— then sweeping out the ashes and reconsecrating the church

[DesertRhino]

“I am a strong believer in the sanctity of private property. Thus as much as I empathize with and may be inclined to cheer on this act, theft is theft”

Then I guess Jesus should have been arrested for destroying private property when he cleared the temple. After all HE didn’t own those tables and that money.

You should worry more about the sanctity of the church than the so called “sanctity” of private property. Where do you draw the line? What if the church bought and paid for Maplethorpe photos to put in the sanctuary. Would you shrug and say “private property, leave it alone”?

[pax_et_bonum]

However, if we believe the faithful are in a "just war" then these statues may be fair game..but I am very hesitant to declare war on Mother Church right now

I don’t see a problem with a war against the paganism which has been unlawfully brought into Holy Mother Church.

These men corrected a wrong by tossing out pagan idols.

Additionally, these are brave men who need our prayers for protection from the evil men who are responsible for unlawfully bringing pagan idols into the Church.

[imardmd1]

There has to be a better way.

Sure. Put bikinis on the art forms.