<div dir="ltr"><br><div>
<div class="gmail-sf-article-content"><div class="gmail-sf-article-header__content"><div class="gmail-sf-article-header__title-container">
<h1 class="gmail-sf-article-header__title">
The unnamable violence: Why the West is silent about the wave of desecration </h1>
</div>
<div class="gmail-sf-article-header__meta">
<div class="gmail-sf-author">
<a class="gmail-sf-author__link" href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/author/matthew-schmitz/" rel="author"><span>Matthew Schmitz</span></a>
</div>
<span><span></span></span></div><div class="gmail-sf-article-header__meta">
<div><a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/magazine/the-unnamable-violence-why-the-west-is-silent-about-the-wave-of-desecration/">https://catholicherald.co.uk/magazine/the-unnamable-violence-why-the-west-is-silent-about-the-wave-of-desecration/</a></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-sf-article-header__image" style="background-image:url("https://catholicherald-production.imgix.net/uploads/2019/08/Screen-Shot-2019-08-07-at-11.53.32.png?auto=compress,format\000026crop=faces,entropy,edges\000026fit=crop\000026q=65\000026w=1024\000026h=530")">
</div><div class="gmail-sf-article-content__text">
<p class="gmail-sf-standfirst-content">
<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>When <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">churches </span>are desecrated, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">statues </span>smashed and <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">
priests </span>attacked, the once-Christian West doesn’t know how to respond
</b></span></p>
<p>On July 14, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">parishioners of </span><b>Saint-Budoc à Porspoder in France</b> </span>learned
that <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>a vandal or vandals had vomited in the <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">parish’s holy water stoups </span>
and thrown <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">a cross</span> in the trash.</b></span></p>
<p>On July 26, <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>paint was splashed on <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the faces and crotches of figures</span> </b></span>in<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> the Valinhos Way of the Cross</b></span> in <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Fatima, Portugal.</b></span></p>
<p>On July 28, <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>three men entered <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the sacristy of a Catholic church in
Szczecin, Poland, </span>demanded<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> vestments</span> for use in a same-sex wedding, and
beat <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the church’s pastor. </span></b></span>Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki described the
attack as an instance of the “ever more frequent attacks of hatred
against believing people and priests”.</p>
<p>The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians,
a non-profit organisation based in Vienna, reports that<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> anti-Christian
attacks and acts of vandalism are on the rise across Europe. </b></span>In France
alone, according to the French Interior Ministry, anti-Christian acts
quadrupled between 2008 and 2019.</p>
<p>The rise in violence against Catholics has been <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>strangely ignored and
downplayed</b></span> – not only by the media, but by Catholics themselves. Many
Catholics are understandably reluctant to complain about what Pope
Francis has called “polite persecution” when their brothers abroad are
being beheaded by ISIS. Catholic leaders also rightly stress that they
suffer less than some other religious groups – most notably Jews, who
likewise face a surge in violence.</p>
<p>Other Catholics fear that drawing attention to these attacks will
encourage the scapegoating of Muslims, despite the fact that most of
these acts do not seem to be perpetrated by Muslims. <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>Satanist symbols
like “666” or slogans of sexual liberation are a recurring features of
these attacks</b></span>. These are not the symbols employed by ISIS.</p>
<p>These legitimate concerns have led to <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>an unfortunate pattern of
minimisation.</b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"> “We adopt a reasonable attitude. We do not want to develop
a discourse of persecution. We do not wish to complain … We are not
victims of a ‘Cathoph</span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">obia’,” Archbishop Georges Pontier, head of the
French bishops’ conference, told Le Point magazine. “In its history,
Judaism has fought an ongoing struggle aga</span>inst anti-Semitic groups. We
Catholics in France now do not have to face such violence every day!”</p>
<p>Attempts to minimise anti-Catholic violence may be well-intentioned,
but it is doubtful they are having the desired effect. As several
scholars have noted, one of the main reasons Western elites overlook the
persecution of Christians around the world is the fact that they
perceive Christians as a privileged group. Highlighting the rise in
violence against Christians in the West is the simplest way to challenge
this assumption.</p>
<p>It also seems unhelpful to pit <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>anti-Catholic violence against
anti-Semitic violence</b></span>, as if acknowledging the one required ignoring the
other. Since the Second Vatican Council, Catholics have sought to
stress what they have in common with the Jewish people. <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>Today <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the two
religions </span>unhappily share the hatred of a society that resents t<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">he
demands of religion, tradition, and community.</span></b></span></p>
<p>One of the goods that can be brought forth from attacks on
Christianity is a heightened appreciation for what Catholics and Jews
have in common. It is notable in this regard that <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Catholics<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> have been
attacked for</span> a sexual ethic that they share with Jews. <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">The disfiguring
of</span> the figures at Fatima <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">is only one minor example. Sexual graffiti,
disfigurings of</span> the Blessed Virgin<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> and other similar acts are
commonplace in desecrations of</span> Catholic churches</b></span>.</p>
<p>One sign of how far we are from reckoning with anti-Christian acts is
the fact that we have no generally agreed upon word to describe them.
Acts of aggression against Islam and Judaism are instantly describable
using widely understood terms. No such term exists for attacks on
Christians. Various intellectuals and activists have suggested terms
such as Cathophobic, Christianophobic, and Christophobic, but no
suggestion has received wide acceptance. <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>Our society has a kind of
aphasia about acts of aggression against <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Christians</span>. It is the violence
that cannot be named.</b></span></p>
<p>Part of the problem lies in the sociologically unique position
inhabited by Catholics in the West. Our liberal culture has a highly
developed vocabulary for protecting minority rights. But there is no set
of terms for describing violence against the faith that in many ways
defined the West, and that remains the majority faith in many Western
nations.</p>
<p>Given the unique constituting role Catholic Christianity has played
in Western life, describing it as another subaltern faith will always be
awkward. Even in Protestant nations, where Catholics have been an
oppressed minority, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Catholicism</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> is widely identified with an oppressive
past. As other religious bodies have cast off the formerly universal
<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Christian opposition to</span> contraception and abortion, </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Catholicism has
stood firm. </b></span>T<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>his makes it a symbol of tradition and authority </b></span>even in
societies that long ago shook off its authority.</p>
<p>One recent example of this occured at the height of the recent US
debate over abortion laws. As heavily Protestant states such as Alabama
and Georgia (77 per cent and 70 per cent Protestant, respectively)
passed restrictions on abortion, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>the Catholic Church </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>became a target of
ire.</b></span> On May 19,<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> the doors of Notre Dame de Lourdes parish </b></span>in the wealthy
college town of Swarthmore, PA, <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>were tagged with the words “You do not
have the right to decide how others live, #ProChoice.”</b></span></p>
<p>Because the West was once defined by its acceptance of Catholicism
and is now in many ways defined by its rejection of it, achieving an
equal and neutral treatment for Catholicism is all but impossible.
Western society looks on the Church as one might look on a former lover.
Given their tangled history, the only future possibilities are
resentful obsession or a revival of passionate attachment. Nothing is
more unlikely than the kind of casual relationship one might enjoy with
a new acquaintance.</p>
<p>JHH Weiler, a Jewish legal scholar who defended Italy’s practice of
displaying the crucifix in public buildings before the European Court
of Human Rights, has called on Europe to overcome its “Christophobia” by
acknowledging its Christian identity. In a short book entitled A
Christian Europe: An Exploratory Essay, Weiler described what such a
Europe would look like:</p>
<p style="padding-left:40px">“It is a Europe that, while celebrating
the noble heritage of Enlightenment humanism, also abandons its
Christophobia and neither fears nor is embarrassed by the recognition
that Christianity is one of the central elements in the evolution of its
unique civilisation. It is, finally, a Europe that, in public discourse
about its own past and future, recovers all the riches that can come
from confronting one of its two principal intellectual and spiritual
traditions.”</p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Benedict XVI issued a similar call in his 2011 message for the World
Day of Peace. He lamented <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">“hostility and prejudice against </span>Christians”
and urged Europe to “be reconciled to its own Christian roots”:</b></span></p>
<p style="padding-left:40px">“I also express my hope that in the West,
and especially in Europe, there will be an end to hostility and
prejudice against Christians because they are resolved to orient their
lives in a way consistent with the values and principles expressed in
the Gospel. <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>May Europe rather be reconciled to its own Christian roots,
which are fundamental for understanding its past, present and future
role in history; in this way it will come to experience justice, concord
and peace by cultivating a sincere dialogue with all peoples.”</b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>Confronting <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">anti</span>-<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Catholic</span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">acts</span> requires a different sort of work than
confronting violence against other faiths</b>. <b>The problem is not <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">hatred</span> of
the other, but<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> hatred of t<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">he self.</span> It is a refusal of</span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">patrimony</span>, <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">an
attempt to deny</span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">one’s own character</span>. </b><b>As Weiler and Benedict have both
clearly seen, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Christianity </span>does not require the West’s tolerance; it
<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">demands its loyalty</span>. </b><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Unless Europe realises</span> that toleration of other
religions <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">does not justify denial of</span> Europe’s <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">own Christian identity, </span>
<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">anti-Christian acts are likely to increase, while being studiously
ignored by</span> those who purport to deplore all prejudice.</b></span></p>
<p><em>Matthew Schmitz is senior editor of First Things</em></p>
</div>
</div>
</div></div>