SW News: In response to the series of destructive acts and defacement of statues around the United States targeting Catholics, Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of Denver published an article on the diocesan website.

He emphasized that the message sent across by these incidents of violence cannot be met with “silence.” “As people of faith, we must respond to this destruction with prayer for the vandals’ conversion and by persistently making known the freedom and flourishing that the Catholic faith brings to countless people,” he said.

Archbishop Aquila noted that those who denounce the Church are actually condemning “what they think the Church is, not who she actually is.” He agreed that the faithful are not perfect and there are many examples of how they have failed to live the Gospel values.

But he drew attention to the fact that “the eternal and temporal impact that has been experienced by so many souls over 2,000 years far outweighs these negative examples.”

He said that secularism was a false god that leads people to violence and hatred. Citing recent events of vandalism of statues of saints, the archbishop said that these attacks, except in cases of mental illness, were done “either out of complete ignorance or out of hatred for the faith.”

He urged the faithful not to take such incidents lightly, but to respond strongly with prayer for conversion of the perpetrators.

Archbishop Aquila concluded the article inviting everyone to participate in the Rosary Crusade that the archdiocese began on August 15.

To watch the whole SW News 146, Click the below link.

https://youtu.be/m7bvo34esX0