“Statues to the Virgin Mary were damaged in Queens, New York, and in Boston; in Ocala, Florida, a man drove a minivan into a Catholic church before pouring gasoline in the foyer and setting fire to the building,” reports the Catholic News Agency in a story about the devastating fire at the San Gabriel Mission, a fire that might very well have been caused by arson.
“The choir loft, a 250-square foot area that housed the pipe organ, is now the focal point for investigators who are considering arson as a possible cause, said Capt. Antonio Negrete of the San Gabriel Fire Department,” reports LAist.com.
“Pretty much everything below (the loft) was smoke and water damage,” Negrete said. “All the fire damage was on the second floor and so that’s how they came to the conclusion that that is where the fire initiated.”
Personally, I am very familiar with the San Gabriel Mission. For the near-decade my wife and I lived in Los Angeles, it was in the San Gabriel Valley, just three miles from the Mission. We visited and attended Mass there countless times. Anyone who came to visit us was given a tour of this extraordinary place — its sanctuary, museum, garden, and cemetery.
The San Gabriel Mission is not only a holy place for Catholics but part of the history of the city, state, and country. Founded in 1771, San Gabriel was the fourth of what would eventually become a string of 21 Catholic missions built up and down the California coast — from San Francisco to San Diego.
Although he would not live to see the building of the 12 missions founded after his death in 1784 at the age of 70, the missions were founded by St. Junipero Serra with the goal of saving the souls of the North American Natives. Although the 54-year-old was already in poor health once his quest began in 1768, this selfless man still agreed to what he knew would be a life of never-ending hardship and danger in order to save the immortal souls of people he had never even met.
Because we are now a nation of babies, and although Serra’s treatment of the Indians was remarkably compassionate for his time or any time — including confronting and challenging his own government, the far-left have deliberately stripped all the nuance from Serra’s history, and now both he and his mission are depicted by dishonest activists and an even more dishonest media as monstrously racist.
This is why, in just five years, six statues of St. Serra have been desecrated. Three of those desecrations occurred over just a few days, between June 19 and July 4 of this year.
On June 19, in San Francisco, St. Serra’s 30 foot statue was toppled and vandalized.
On June 20, in downtown Los Angeles, St. Serra’s statue was toppled by a group of crazed left-wing activists.
On July 4, at the state capitol in Sacramento, another Serra statue was knocked over.
Fearing the worst, the San Gabriel Mission removed Serra’s statue from its garden, a wise move in a horrific era where the Democrat Party and national media are encouraging all this racial violence, but this fear is also why it is reasonable to suspect arson.
What’s more, according to Capt. Negrete, “an electrical issue has not been ruled out but it is unlikely to have anything to do with a recent renovation to the church interior.”
The fire started in the choir loft, which is at the back of the church above the main entrance. From there the fire climbed to the wooden roof, much of which collapsed. The sanctuary can be rebuilt and thankfully much of its treasures had already been removed. The church was being renovated for its 250th anniversary next year. But this should put a chill up the spine of anyone who believes in religious freedom.
Last month, left-wing activist Shaun King openly called for “all murals and stained glass windows of white Jesus, and his European mother, and their white friends” to come down.
“They are a gross form white supremacy,” he added.
Since then, statues of the Virgin Mary in New York and Boston have been desecrated, and a man in Florida stands accused of attempting to burn down a church with gasoline after crashing into the building with his car.
With the silent approval of the Democrat Party, Joe Biden, and the corporate media, our Christian churches are under attack, and I fear this is only the beginning.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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