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Italian police have arrested an African immigrant after the man went on a rampage through four Roman churches, demolishing statues and knocking over candlesticks and reliquaries. The 39-year-old Ghanaian began his destructive spree on Friday evening in the church of San Martino ai Monti, where he shattered a statue before being confronted by the parish priest, after which he fled the premises. Soon afterward the man entered another church full of visiting pilgrims, the ancient Basilica of Santa Prassede, where he demolished the statues of the church’s patron as well as a statue of Saint Anthony, throwing them to the...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W63TgxJMKZ4 So much for dissent is patriotic

Ci sono stati anche casi recenti finiti per la maggior parte nelle cronache locali e, talvolta, anche in quelle nazionali. Islamici che entrano nelle chiese, urlano, imprecano, spaccano gli oggetti sacri. Ma l'allarme non riguarda solo l'Italia. Come riporta un articolo del "Venerdì" di Repubblica, nel mirino ci sono anche Spagna, Francia, Belgio e Germania. Un dato allarmante arriva proprio da uno dei land tedeschi, la Renania settentrionale-Vestfalia. Dove negli ultimi tre anni si sono registrate 3.504 incursioni profanatorie. Che consistono in atti tipo sputare sulle immagini sacre, defecare sugli altari, urinare nelle acquasantiere, profanare l'eucarestia, insultare i fedeli,...

The Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela Ethiopian rock churches Megan Sauter • 08/25/2016 While many spectacular churches have been constructed in Ethiopia, perhaps the country’s most famous churches are the ones carved out of stone. Located 150 miles south of Aksum, Lalibela is the best example of Ethiopia’s hypogean (rock-hewn) architectural tradition. With 11 rock-hewn churches, Lalibela is understandably a place of pilgrimage for those in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The site Lalibela was originally called Roha, but it eventually took the name of King Lalibela, who ruled around 1200 C.E. as part of the Zagwe dynasty. King Lalibela is traditionally...

An Iowa church just wants to be free to preach the gospel, but the state’s so-called nondiscrimination requirements could block the house of worship from doing just that. Lawyers for the church are asking a federal court to prevent Iowa from censoring what the religious group can say about homosexuality, same-sex “marriage,” transgenderism and other related topics. The case erupted when the state’s Civil Rights Commission first claimed the authority to control the content of sermons and then to define what’s religious. At issue is the state’s nondiscrimination requirements that specify any “public accommodation” can be ordered not to say...

No one is saying, yet, that terrorists are ready to attack American churches the way they have in the Middle East or, more recently, against the Rev. Jacques Hamel in France. But as Fox News reports, the threats are already looming. And before you say, "What else would Fox say?", consider the examples in the article: hate speech, death threats and aborted attack plans of the type that would be familiar to Jewish leaders. This is how ominous it can get – and how some police are slow to address the situation, according to Fox: As Father Josiah Trenham prepared...

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes that increasing number of Orthodox churches in Russia is testimony that the mission of the Russian Orthodox Church is something the people want. "Over the last six years our Church increased by 5,000 churches and 10,000 clergymen, which means that people need the Church’s mission. There could not be such growth in the Church if there were no demand. That is why we feel so special when we place the foundations of new churches," the patriarch said at the ceremony of laying the first stone in the foundation of the Assumption Cathedral...

There's been a lot taken down and a lot that needs to be put back together at Elkview Baptist Church. "We have sustained damage primarily in our children's area. It was completely wiped out," said student Pastor Clint Chiles. "The Lord's taken care of us, we're still plugging through and making due with what's been given to us," he said. As Chiles shines some light on a basement that was once, over a month ago, plunged into the darkness of flood waters, he keeps his faith despite not being eligible for government assistance.

Following the brutal murder of an elderly Catholic Priest in France, ISIS has publicly warned British Christian clergy and their congregants: you’re next. Police publicly warned Britain’s 5.4 million Christian church goers, pastors and clergy to be on alert as they are likely targets for ISIS. The Daily Mail reports that security has now been increased for Britain’s 47,000 churches in response to ISIS’s threat to target Christians and churches in major world cities. Roughly 5.4 million British citizens are church members.

The terrorist who slit the throat of 85-year-old priest Fr. Jacques Hamel today in Normandy, France had previously been arrested on terrorism charges and was was sentenced to house arrest with an electronic monitor. He spent a year in prison after being arrested in Turkey attempting to reach Syria and join the Islamic State. He was granted unsupervised release periods from his parent's house between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The attack occurred during the church's 9 a.m. Mass.The church attacked on Tuesday morning was reportedly on an ISIS list of potential targets discovered in April 2015....

Washington D.C., Jun 22, 2016 / 04:54 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Obama administration has rejected a challenge to the State of California’s requirement that health care plans include abortion coverage. A major federal budget amendment intended to protect abortion foes does not apply, it ruled. Leaders with the U.S. bishops’ conference said it was “shocking” that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services allowed the State of California to force all employers, including churches, to fund and facilitate elective abortions. “Even those who disagree on the issue of life should be able to respect the conscience rights of those...

A Muslim mob torched and looted the homes of 80 Christian families in the Al-Beida village in Egypt, looking to punish them for wanting to turn one of the buildings in the village into a church so they can worship. One witness, Christian resident Mousa Zarif, recalled the events: "On Friday afternoon, following Friday noon prayer, a great deal of fanatic Muslims gathered in the front of the new house of my cousin, Naim Aziz, during its construction because of a rumor spread in the village that this building would be turned into a church."

Churches in California are officially subject to an onerous state regulation that requires them to pay for abortions, thanks to a ruling by the Obama administration. The troubling situation began in 2014 when the California Department of Managed Health Care reclassified abortion as a “basic health service” under the Affordable Care Act and ordered all insurance plans in the state to begin covering surgical abortions immediately. Even churches are not exempt from funding abortions. The churches filed a lawsuit against the regulation last October, and it has been moving through the courts. They also asked the Obama administration to uphold...

Southern Baptist churches in the United States will no longer display the Confederate battle flag.

Moscow, June 13, Interfax - The Pan-Orthodox Council can only be legitimate if all local Churches without exceptions participate in it, the Moscow Patriarchate said. "Some people now say that it's their problem that they have refused, they don't have to participate, but we will go ahead anyway in the composition that will be there and will make decisions and they will become binding for everyone. It doesn't happen that way," Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, told a briefing in Moscow on Monday. He said that all Churches have to participate in the...

The Jihad on Christian Church Tents It’s not enough to ban, bomb, and burn church buildings. May 25, 2016 Raymond Ibrahim    Note: Raymond Ibrahim was interviewed about this article on Ave Maria Radio’s “Kresta in the Afternoon.”Originally published by the Gatestone Institute.Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.A Christian church in Egypt was recently torched to the ground.  According to a statement by the Coptic Christian diocese in Minya, Upper Egypt: “The Virgin Mary Church in Ismailiyah, which is about four miles north of Minya, was exposed to an attack by some extremists who set fire...

Christians in Turkey have become a tiny minority. The few remaining Christian churches in Anatolia are also on the path to total annihilation. Christians in Turkey have – throughout the centuries -- been turned into a tiny, dwindling minority. The remaining few Christian churches in Anatolia are also on the path to total annihilation. Hagia Sophia in Trabzon: Church-mosque-museum and now mosque again. The Hagia Sophia, Greek for “Holy Wisdom,” was one of the many historic Orthodox churches located in the city of Trabzon. ... The city of Trabzon .. is located in the ancient land of Pontos, in the...

The historic Manhattan cathedral that was gutted in a massive fire was one of four Christian Orthodox churches to go up in flames on Orthodox Easter Sunday — sparking fears of a coordinated attack on the religion. While FDNY officials said the blaze at the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava on West 25th Street does not appear suspicious, members of the Orthodox community have doubts. They are worried that the blaze — along with church fires in Australia and Russia — were set in retaliation for the religion’s role in blocking the canonization of Croatian Nazi supporter Cardinal Aloysius...

Within 24 hours of the Orthodox Church celebrating Easter, three of its buildings around the world have gone up in flames. Orthodox churches in Sydney, Melbourne and New York all caught fire, although there appears to be no link between the blazes. In Sydney, the Macedonian Orthodox Church of the Resurrection was gutted following a fire that broke out about 10pm on Sunday. Less than 12 hours after the end of the Easter service, the Rockdale church, parts of which have been standing since the 1890s, was destroyed. ...

Here’s a less than sunny story to start off your Sunday, but since it involves churches I suppose it’s appropriate. We only recently discussed the rather difficult position Barack Obama finds himself in when dealing with the provocative nature of our supposed ally Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. His track record as a positive force for change has been questionable at best, and this week he adds another negative mark to his tally. In the war torn city of Diyarbakir, the state has seized control of all the non-Muslim churches, including some iconic properties which date back more than...