An act of vandalism last week outside Annunciation Catholic Church in Northwest Washington, D.C. is the latest in a series of acts of vandalism and destruction at Catholic churches and other Catholic properties across the United States.
On Oct. 22, a swastika was found painted on the pillar at Annunciation Catholic Church's parking lot. It was first discovered by one of the parish school teachers who arrived at the property prior to the beginning of the school day. It has since been covered up.
According to a statement from the parish, “the incident was reported to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), which has assigned an investigator and classified the graffiti as a hate crime.”
“At this time, we have no indication that this incident is specifically related to our parish or school nor information about the motivation behind it,” the statement said. “However, there have been more than 100 acts of hateful vandalism and other property damage at Catholic sites nationwide since May 2020.”
Father Charles Cortinovis, who serves as priest secretary to Cardinal Wilton Gregory and also as the executive director of the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, contacted several nearby congregations “to alert them that this is occurring in the community.”
He said he contacted the Washington Hebrew Congregation, St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral and the National Cathedral, all located not far from Annunciation Church.
“We were not inviting sympathy, but wanted to let people know what is going on,” he said. “We did not contact them so that they could feel bad for us, necessarily, but that they would be aware of this. We wanted to inform our neighbors that there are people out there who are willing to make a public display of hateful behavior against a religious congregation.”
Noting that the vandalism was a painted swastika, Father Cortinovis said, “people recognize the swastika as a symbol of hatred, and it’s a hatred that can be directed toward anybody.”
Father Cortinovis said reflecting on the incident could spur efforts “to educate our own parishioners to the existence of this kind of behavior and lead us to work to promote unity and tolerance and love for our neighbor not just in our parish, but in our community.”
The swastika painted at Annunciation is similar to acts of arson, vandalism, and other destruction at Catholic sites across the United States. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has reported that at least 104 incidents have occurred across 29 states since May 2020. Incidents include arson; statues beheaded or with limbs cut, smashed, and painted; gravestones defaced with swastikas and anti-Catholic language and American flags next to those gravestones burned; and other destruction and vandalism.
On Oct. 14, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, chairman of the bishop’s Committee for Religious Liberty, and Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, issued the following statement:
“These incidents of vandalism have ranged from the tragic to the obscene, from the transparent to the inexplicable. There remains much we do not know about this phenomenon, but at a minimum, they underscore that our society is in sore need of God’s grace.
“In all cases, we must reach out to the perpetrators with prayer and forgiveness. True, where the motive was retribution for some past fault of ours, we must reconcile; where misunderstanding of our teachings has caused anger toward us, we must offer clarity; but this destruction must stop. This is not the way.
“We call on our elected officials to step forward and condemn these attacks. We thank our law enforcement for investigating these incidents and taking appropriate steps to prevent further harm. We appeal to community members for help as well. These are not mere property crimes – this is the degradation of visible representations of our Catholic faith. These are acts of hate.”
Meanwhile, on Oct. 27, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, condemned what it called the “neo-Nazi vandalism” outside of Annunciation Church.
In a statement, Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’S national communications director said, “Any bias-motivated attack targeting a house of worship is unacceptable. We condemn this vile act and welcome the hate crime investigation. We stand in solidarity with the Catholic community and all others targeted by hatred and bigotry.”
The Catholic News Service reported that in response to such attacks and vandalism against Catholic properties, the Committee for Religious Liberty launched the "Beauty Heals" project featuring videos from various dioceses discussing the significance of sacred art.
At least 10 videos are available on YouTube; a link to the play list of all the videos can be found at https://bit.ly/3peNq3o.
“We have a wonderful parish and school community at Annunciation, which is why we are very disturbed about a recent act of vandalism here,” the statement from Annunciation said. “We are committed to being a welcoming and safe community and we ask that you also join in praying for those responsible for this incident and for those hurt by it. We all need God’s healing grace.”
