Posted on 04/15/2023 10:58:13 AM PDT by Morgana
Nebraska authorities arrested a man accused of vandalizing a Catholic church in Syracuse earlier this month, flipping the altar and destroying a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
According to 1011 NOW, the Otoe County Sheriff’s Office arrested Travis Ross, 32, of rural Syracuse, on Thursday for the Palm Sunday weekend vandalism at St. Paulinus Catholic Church.
Ross is charged with criminal mischief and criminal trespass, according to the sheriff’s office. Authorities said they found the man after reviewing video footage and talking to local residents.
The Catholic News Agency reports the Rev. Ryan Salisbury discovered the vandalism April 1. He said the altar was overturned and the Sacred Heart of Jesus statue, candlesticks and the altar stone were damaged. He said it will cost about $5,000 to fix or replace everything.
“Somehow, in the Lord’s providence, this was allowed,” Salisbury told CNA. “It happened in Our Lord’s own Holy Week. His own journey was marked by injustice, by brokenness, and by damage done to his own body, and that was allowed to happen here in Syracuse in some ways.”
St. Paulinus is the church that pro-life state Sen. Julie Slama, R-Sterling, attends with her family. Last year, Slama received death threats after introducing a heartbeat bill to protect unborn babies from abortion in Nebraska.
“We hope you’ll join us in prayer and thoughts of healing for those who worship at St. Paulinus,” Slama wrote on Twitter, sharing photos of the vandalism. “May all those who choose to worship be able to do so freely and without fear.”
Churches and pro-life organizations across the world have been hit by a wave of arson, vandalism, threats and other crimes within the past two years. LifeNews counted about 250 abortion-related attacks in 2022, including the shooting of an elderly pro-life woman in Michigan.
Attacks on Christian churches in the United States also have almost tripled in the past four years, according to a December report from the Family Research Council.
The conservative organization documented 420 acts of hostility against 397 different churches between January 2018 and September 2022, including shootings, bomb threats, arson, assaults and vandalism. Coinciding with a rise in violence against pro-life organizations, 57 of the church attacks in 2022 were attributed to pro-abortion motives, the organization found.
Others have documented a rise in attacks on churches and Christian organizations in Europe and Canada. According to True North, at least 71 churches in Canada have been vandalized or set on fire within the past two years.
The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe also tracks violence, censorship and other attacks on churches in Europe. In its 2021 report, the organization documented more than 500 anti-Christian hate crimes on the continent. According to the organization, the “high rate of hate crimes and growing secular intolerance” is having a “crippling effect on the religious freedom of Christians” throughout Europe.
The increase in crime has prompted many churches and pro-life organizations to increase security measures. In the United States, Republican lawmakers have been demanding action from the Biden administration to crack down on domestic terrorism against pro-life advocates and Christians. But, while the Biden administration has been aggressively working to expand the killing of unborn babies in abortions, it has done seemingly little to stop the violence and hostilities directed at pro-life advocates and churches.
In November, FBI Director Christopher Wray admitted that most of the abortion-related attacks in the past year have targeted pro-life organizations. “Since the Dobbs decision, probably in the neighborhood of 70 percent of our abortion-related violence cases or threats cases are cases of violence or threats against … pro-life organizations,” he told a U.S. Senate committee.
So l wonder which FIB field office Travis Ross is from.
It is always the left. If guns could be kept out of the hands of Democrats mass shootings would drop by 90%. Violence is not an American culture problem, it is a Democrat problem.
On purpose.
Democrats are the ENEMY. Time to put them down with extreme prejudice. If putting them down is too harsh, then let’s beat the crap out of them. Leave them bloody and broken.
Wonder which FBI office is responsible for this vandalism?
We already have an example of Christian kids murdered simply because they were Christians. If the Left had its way Christians would be lite up like torches as it was under the Roman Emperor Nero. They hate Christian Civilization. They instinctively know if they are to transform America into Communism that Christians must be crushed first.
Will the perp be let out of jail? will biden and #2 puppet go visit him and hand him a reward?
Nothing will happen to him, he attacked a church, so, according to the higher-ups, all is well and good as much as the dems hate Christians. They are fair game. This type of stuff will only get worse and worse. JESUS told us it would be this way, so this doesn’t surprise me.
SPJNK.
State pf Nebraska may not be as forgiving as the Feebs.
You’re right!
I’m not surprised either.
I agree. Demonrats are bullies, and sometimes to stop bullies, you have to give them a taste of their own medicine.
Wow. You’d never guess he was a leftist crackpot loser just by looking at him
Yep. They don’t ever seem to know what a barber is, or have been taught basic grooming. I bet his teeth and nails are a nightmare too. Lol.
I think it would be best if Catholics returned to the good old days of, “when somebody punches you, you punch back twice as much and twice as hard.”
In the case of vandalism of a church, you vandalize them back, A LOT. Then pitch them out into the gutter.
He was arrested on Thursday so I can only assume he’s out by now.
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