Catholics in California rallied in a peaceful demonstration Tuesday evening at the former site of a statue of St. Junipero Serra, which a group of activists defaced and pulled down earlier this week.
The riot at which the statue was destroyed took place Oct. 12 at Mission San Rafael Arcángel in San Rafael, north of San Francisco Bay.
Father Kyle Faller, parochial vicar at the mission, led a rosary and addressed the crowd of 75-100 people Oct. 13, many of whom held signs saying “Free the Mass,” in reference to the city’s COVID-19 restrictions on public worship, which San Francisco’s archbishop has called unjust.
Faller led a Litany of Reparation for the statue’s destruction, as well as the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel.
“Let this be a time for all of you to take courage and not be afraid, as our great Pope St. John Paul II said,” Faller told the crowd….
The hourlong protest Oct. 12, organized by members of the Coast Miwok tribe, marked Indigenous People’s Day, the holiday that some cities and states – including California – have designated to replace Columbus Day.
A church maintenance worker had covered the statue in duct tape before the protest to protect it from graffiti, and boarded up windows at the mission….
The masked rioters peeled off the duct tape and sprayed red paint in the statue’s face. Some protestors tried to prevent local news cameras from filming the toppling, but Fox2 captured the statue’s fall on video. At least five people can be seen pulling on the statue’s head with nylon cords and ropes.
Faller said when he and the parish pastor, Father Luello Palacpac, looked out at the rioters pulling down the statue, they saw “people that need to be loved….”
Police have arrested five women in connection with the incident and charged them with felony vandalism, Fox2 reported….
The above comes from an Oct. 14 story on the site of the Catholic News Agency.
Archbishop Cordileone: “What happens next is crucial”
San Francisco’s archbishop plans to conduct an exorcism Oct. 17 at the site of a now-toppled statue of St. Junipero Serra at St. Rafael Mission Church in San Rafael.
Just the saint’s feet are left after the statue on church property was vandalized and desecrated Oct. 12 by what Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone described as a “small, violent mob,” who he hopes will be prosecuted for attacking the statue….
“Once again, this time at St. Raphael Parish, a statue of St. Junipero Serra was mindlessly defaced and toppled by a small, violent mob,” Archbishop Cordileone said in an Oct. 13 statement. “This kind of behavior has no place in any civilized society.”
He said the police arrested five “of the perpetrators,” but “what happens next is crucial.”
“If these are treated as small property crimes, it misses the point: The symbols of our faith are now under attack not only on public property, but now on our own property and even inside of our churches,” he said. “We cannot allow a small unelected group of lawbreakers to decide what sacred symbols we Catholics or other believers may display and use to foster our faith. This must stop….”
The above comes from an Oct. 14 story by Catholic News Agency.
Archbishop Cordileone has rightly recognized the demonic aspects of this statue rage destruction. Those committing these acts are fueled by an angry hate that can trace it’s origins to hell itself. Though some Catholics will stubbornly reject the Archbishop’s intercession, they should realize the spiritual dimension to these desecrations and applaud his leadership in battling the forces of darkness.
And how can we know that exorcisms have any effect? More prayershow from a bishop? Seems to me any protection should have been done prior to the vandalism to prevent it. How about preemptive protective prayers instead of after-the-fact displays that can’t be proven to do anything? Hey, what about the consecration to Mary? No protection from that?
Kevin, if the California Catholic Daily had a prize for the most consistent comment, you’d win without a doubt! I was wondering, “How long before Kevin again brings up the consecration to Mary?” Is your issue with the consecration? … or the Blessed Mother? … or the fact that God gives humans free will? … or prayer in general? … or the existence of the supernatural/spiritual?
I’m pretty consistent and will again suggest that the Church repent of the Pachamama idolatry in the Vatican and pray appropriate prayers.
Then, let’s see what might happen!
I had nothing to do with Pachamama. Not my problem, not my responsibility. If God is ruining the lives of millions of people who had nothing to do with Pachamama, what a farce. Why not just strike dead the one who was responsible for it so the Church can get on? My beef is that prayer seems to have no effect and what the bishops have been doing during the pandemic and in response to vandalism is just for show. I think many bishops are secretly harboring the same suspicions that I express. They act like they don’t have any answers except to pray more even when that doesn’t do anything. Any intelligent man who assesses the situation has to be thinking, “Where is God and why isn’t he helping his Church in any of this?” The Democrats stand likely to control the federal government come January. Want to bet they will codify abortion as a federal right until the moment of birth? Then Roe can’t be overturned because there will be a federal law guaranteeing a right to abortion. All those decades of prayers and activism to stop abortion are likely to be for nothing come January. Where is God?
Again, Is your issue with the consecration? … or the Blessed Mother? … or the fact that God gives humans free will? … or prayer in general? … or the existence of the supernatural/spiritual? … or all of the above? It seems it might be more with free will and the existence of the supernatural or spiritual. Is that a fair assessment of where you are?
In answer to your question, “Where is God,?” He is “where” He has always been and will be and was when Jesus died on the cross,
You make for an entertaining Friday, Kevin. Every Friday is a Good Friday. Think on that for a while if you can stop your despair.
“Where is God?” sez Kevin/Job.
4 ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
“I had nothing to do with Pachamama. Not my problem, not my responsibility.”
Are you Catholic? Do you know what reparation is? Evidently not.
Be careful. You better get over this before you are called to your particular judgement. Jesus wont care for the “Its not my problem” answer from you. Look up Four last things too.
This acidic screeds show a tortured soul refusing God’s grace. I will not serve, said Lucifer, that’s bad company Kevin.
God is everywhere. Prayer is the only real power on earth. But God does not give up his Will to yours because He is all-knowing and you are not. Faith believes that whatever answer you get to your prayer is the right one.
It is good to pray and petition, but also to praise God, to tell God you are sorry for your sins, to tell God you are sorry and want to repair for others sins, to thank Him for all your blessings, the blessings to our nation, the blessings to the Church and to the world.
A good Catholic does not want the people who brought the weird statue to the Vatican struck dead. A good Catholic wants to offer reparation and prayers for their purification and sanctification.
But you are correct in that prayer alone is not sufficient. We must atone for our sins. Sometimes it can be a small act; sometimes it needs to be large.
Catholicism is not comfortable for the self-interested.
God bless Archbishop Cordileone, the clergy and the lay faithful of the Archdiocese. We should not stand by idly while our sacred places are attacked.
Churches must do more to protect our Catholic Heritage, the Church Structures and the Properties.
That means not just praying for the criminals after the damage is done.
It means an active program to protect Churches with surveillance cameras, better fencing,
and more police involvement.
It may also mean bringing criminal charges (and not flinching! or saying, “We forgive you poor vandals”)
We have to protect ourselves much better, or, taking Europe as an example, we will see not only more
vandalism, but much more extensive damage to our Churches.
Inactivity or passive actions are no longer of any use.
It is time for active defense against criminals.
Call the Cops!!
Kevin T, read the Old Testament and yo I will find instructions on intentionally causing a pregnant woman to miscarry. Gid does seem to be pro-choice.
Not true
Mike, that was only if the killing of the child were accidental, not if it were deliberate, and there was still a punishment for that kind of manslaughter though not as harsh as for murder.
Anne T. could you give the reference, please?
“When men have a fight, and hurt a pregnant woman, so that she suffer a miscarriage, but no further injury, the guilty one should be fined as much as the woman’s husband demands of him, and he shall pay in the presence of the judges. But, if injury ensues, you shall give life for life, limb for limb, etc..– NAB, Exodus 21:22-25.
Theologians interpret that to mean if the child survives the miscarriage the offender pays for any damages. If it does not it is life for life. If the husband and wife were the attackers, the charges would be different.
By the way, abortionists were never executed in this country, at least not in my lifetime, even when it was illegal. They were simply fined or put in jail or prison according to the damages they had done.
That is probably not correct. Some might have been executed in the U.S. if if the woman died as a result of an illegal abortion.
This is the work of the Evil One he still roams the Earth trying to snare any soul he can. Pray for Archbishop Cordileone he seems to be the only prelate willing to stand up to the Antifa and BLM mob, how sad that he is the only prelate in the Roman Catholic Church to do so, however it only makes his journey to Heaven only faster then the rest of the frightened bishops could ever hope for.
During the diabolic 1960s, I kept praying and waiting (I was a daily Mass-goer) and hoping the terrible, violent, filthy “hippie garbage” would be ended. Would government officials close lawless, violent college campuses? Would local cities and states pass stern laws? Would violent, loud, dope-infested, filthy rock “music” “concerts,” be sternly outlawed? Why were well-fed, privileged kids– from the world’s richest country— so suddenly “out-of-control,” mindlessly following filthy, violent, immoral, “anti-society” pop stars, and sick, politically-subversive misfits– ruining their young lives?? Could NOTHING be done?? The 20th century had just seen violent political revolutions in Russia, China, Latin America, and elsewhere. Was America tragically the next political target, for some unknown, horrific revolution? Communists, including Krushchev, had always warned, that they would secretly break America, but not by war– instead, by subversively undermining and destroying her religion and morality. A good Democracy, and a good Church, are both not “free,” not easy to keep– they both require good education, much hard work, morality, discipline, faithfulness, good leadership, and personal sacrifice. Hope someday, my prayers will be answered– and the Devil destroying America, will be vanquished, at last!
While I agree that the Devil is destroying America let’s not turn into the Devil ourselves by taking steps that would imitate the Nazis, Communists and other socialist dictators? Can a free society thrive while government officials close college campuses and local cities and states pass stern laws? Do we prove how free we are by ending rock “music” “concerts? How about we arrest and prosecute the violent, filthy and immoral people while allowing the free expression of music and political “back and forth”, called “freedom of speech”? Let’s keep “freedom of peaceful assembly” too. Let’s allow “pop stars” to earn a living, but clamp down on public displays of immorality. Let’s allow young people to feel lime “misfits” and work to being them into the freedom we love. Let’s make sure to teach follow what Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sang about in “Teach Your Children Well”. Let’s not become Nazis or Communists!