Drive-by gunshots target Denver-area Catholic church

Catholic News Agency ^ | August 8, 2022 | Kevin J. Jones

[Morgana]

A gunman shot at a Denver-area Catholic church in separate early morning incidents Saturday and Monday. No one was hurt, but one estimate suggests the gunshots caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage.

Parish staff stressed the need to pray for the perpetrator and emphasized that they are taking the utmost security precautions.

“We are praying for the conversion of whoever did this,” Deacon Derrick Johnson of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church told CNA Aug 8. “If there’s any opportunity to speak to that person, we’d be happy to speak with them and have a dialogue.”

Johnson spoke after two separate rounds of gunshots hit the parish church in unincorporated Adams County just north of Denver. The Adams County Sheriff's Office is handling the investigation.

“In the early morning of Aug. 6 and 8 there were two separate incidents of shootings that hit the front doors at Assumption Parish,” Johnson recounted.

Security footage of the first incident, the deacon said, appears to show “a single motorcyclist shooting what we believe to be a pistol as he drove by.”

“These incidents happened after hours,” Johnson said. “We don’t believe they are targeting people. Just targeting the church for whatever reason.”

Photos of the church sent to CNA show damage to the church exterior, including a bullet hole in a window. Doors and doorframes also were damaged. Photos show a broken outer window above a set of double doors, with shattered glass beneath.

“The first morning we discovered three shots, two into the door and one through the stained glass in the door,” Johnson said. “Two of the bullets were recovered and given to the Adams County sheriff.”

“On Monday morning, another bullet impact was discovered, this time above the doors, impacting the protective layer of the stained glass. The projectile was also given to the sheriff’s office,” the deacon added.

News of the shooting has not yet become widespread among parishioners, Johnson said, though the first incident took place hours before a wedding.

Johnson wanted parishioners to know that parish staff is committed to their safety.

“We are absolutely conscious of security, between our security team and ensuring that we have adequate camera coverage and lighting in front of the parish. We’ll do our best to make sure that whoever did this is prosecuted,” he told CNA.

Though the bullet fractured one outer window, it did not break through a stained-glass window behind it.

The church’s custom-fit doors were recently completed at a cost of $75,000. The deacon described Assumption as a “very, very old parish.” The parish church was first dedicated in 1912, though the structure has gone through several renovations and expansions incorporating the original building.

Johnson estimated the damage at about $75,000.

[arthurus]

The parish security detail should wait for this fellow with an AR or whatever might be the preferred church defense weapon. Let the perp get off a shot then ventilate him.

[whitney69]

The Catholic Church has voiced opinions of non-religious topics way too many times in the last 50 to 60 years using excessive political activity of the institutional Church. When the activities of individual Church representatives is added to this using political views during religious service, the problem of political involvement in political life appears to be a significant weakness of the Catholic Church.

It appears that the hierarchy of problems facing the Catholic Church in the USA is related, on the one hand, to the weight of the issues and their prominence in the media and, on the other hand, the inability of the Church to credibly handle such cases.

In an article by Pew Research it lists many cases of sexual activity inconsistent with the Bible and the failure of the Church to entertain their problems and corrections. These topics include with the media interpretation

Paedophilia of priests
Homosexuality of priests
Involvement of the Church in politics
Decline of religiosity
Lavish standard of living of priests
Excessive payments for sacraments
Alcohol abuse by priests
Breaking the celibate
Priests expressing political views during religious service
Conflicts among priests
Media hostility to the Church
Low income of some parishes while others flourish
Lack of democracy inside the Church
Insufficient involvement of the laity in parish affairs
Insufficient financing of the Church

These are but a few of the topics that can cause people to create harm to the church whether it is warranted or not.

The best thing the church can do now is close off their outside religious topics and get back to the basics. They are no longer, and haven’t been, an independent country for around 2000 years. Some of the church duties crossed over into politics basically in a religious format, not as a country.

So if they are going to challenge people concerning politics, they must be prepared to take the attack just like a country. And they are not prepared for that.

wy69