[Archbishop] Cordileone on Serra Statue Case: Prosecutor Signaled Attacks Against Catholics Go Unpunished

Catholic News Agency ^ | 5/26/23 | Kevin J. Jones

[marshmallow]

Denver, Colo., May 26, 2023 / 13:15 pm Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco said Thursday that prosecutors’ decision to reduce the charge against activists who destroyed a parish’s statue of a saint from felony to misdemeanor sends the signal that attacks against the Catholic Church can continue with impunity.

“It is clear to me that this course of action would not have been taken with anyone else. In fact, if the same kind of offense had been committed against another religious congregation or group, it would almost certainly have been prosecuted as a hate crime,” Cordileone said.

Cordileone’s statement follows a decision by the the Marin County District Attorney’s Office to reduce charges against five protesters who, on Oct. 12, 2020, defaced and tore down the statue of St. Junipero Serra on the grounds of Mission San Rafael Arcángel, the present-day home of St. Rafael Church in San Rafael, California.

“There have been more than 100 attacks on Catholic Church property across the nation, including in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, one of which was someone firing a bullet into our cathedral. Anti-Catholicism has a long and ugly history in this country.”

“Now, with this decision, the Marin County district attorney has given the signal that attacks on Catholic houses of worship and sacred objects may continue without serious legal consequence,” the archbishop said.

Before the activists attacked the statue, members of the Coast Miwok tribe held a planned hourlong protest to mark Indigenous People’s Day. Numerous statues of the saint were vandalized or destroyed in 2020, most of them in California, amid civil unrest in the wake of the Minneapolis murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer.

Dean Hoaglin, chair of the Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin, who was not.......

[irishjuggler]

I like Cordileone. He’s a fighter, and he takes the side of the Catholic Church. He also chimed in on the Dodger situation.

Meanwhile, crickets from “Cardinal Bob” McElroy... whose natural affinity lies with the gays and the attackers of the Church.

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

Something’s got to burn in this country or rights are not given....not a threat here, look at Irish, Black, Catholic history here.

[FlyingEagle]

Indeed, it is a Hate Crime. Same as the LA Dodgers sponsoring TransFaggot “nuns”, a Hate Crime.