Rash of Catholic church burnings and vandalism isn't 'sad,' it's sacrilege

National Post, 02 July 2021

Are Canada's leaders coming to the view that violence is legitimate protest?

The intrepid souls at the Catholic Civil Rights League put out a statement this week entitled, “Burning Down Churches is Not the Answer.”

That rather depends on what the question is.

If the question is whether setting Catholic churches ablaze will advance reconciliation, then the League is on the same page as the prime minister, who belatedly conceded that arson in the house of God is not the answer.

But if the question is different, the answer will be different.

It is plausible that the arsonists and vandals are employing violence as a form of political, social or cultural protest. Violent protest is unusual in Canada, but there are certainly plenty of precedents.

It is plausible that the arsonists and vandals are not seeking reconciliation but revenge. In that case, the violence has its own logic. Everyone knows what pieties are to be invoked in addressing historic injustices — healing and reconciliation. That does not mean that everyone desires that path. Revenge is another option when confronting injustice; human history is rather littered with examples.

It is plausible that the arsonists and vandals simply hate Catholics, and are grasping this moment as an opportune time. In that case, torching Catholic churches, disfiguring Catholic statues and intimidating Catholic parishioners is exactly the right answer, even if those Catholics who have lost the church where their families worshipped for decades are Indigenous.

As we do not yet know who is responsible for the attacks, we cannot yet determine which rationale at work. Time will tell. Likely there will be an admixture of motives in play.

Violence against Catholic churches is not rare. For example, in 2020 more than 80 acts of anti-Catholic vandalism took place in the United States — arson, toppling of statues, defacing gravestones, graffiti. Houses of worship of all kinds — synagogues, temples and mosques — are often targets of vandalism.

Last year in Sudbury, long before the current prominence of the residential school issue, vandals took power saws and grinders to eight large bronze statues at an outdoor stations of the cross in a Catholic prayer garden, cutting off their heads and arms. It was done in broad daylight.

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