A little over a week ago, I warned the posters in this thread of the coming attacks on our churches. I was ignored, and pretty much ridiculed. I was told that churches were safe from violence.
This morning, a priest in Normandy, France, was brutally murdered and parishioners taken hostage during Mass.
Call me a conspiracy theorist, paranoid, or what have you. This is coming to the West, folks, and it is already here. I’ve asked before what the Church plans to do about this issue.
As a European, I should like to respond to this as I think you have mischaracterised pretty much everything.
The issue you raised was what level of security should exist. You wrote.
At what point does it become unsafe to attend Mass under these circumstances? Given the recent events in our media, happening both in the U.S. but also in Europe, shouldn’t our churches have armed guards at the doors to prevent attacks, similar to how some holy sites in Israel are guarded by armed guards?
If churches fail to put in place these measures, is the church being reckless given all of the recent violence as demonstrated daily in the national media? Do I have an obligation to protect my family and not attend Mass if this is the case?
To propose that the situation in the United States is parallel to the situation as it is in Israel is delusional.
In America, you have experienced incidents of gun violence, as at the church in South Carolina…but to propose that every church in the United States therefore should have armed guard or that people should cease to attend Mass because there is some statistical prospect of harm, the response is out of proportion; it is, frankly, irrational.
All that would be akin to saying I am never going to use an automobile or train because there have been mishaps with fatalities. There have been with elevators and escalators, too. Of course, having said that I don’t back into the elevator on the off chance the cab isn’t there or is not flush with the landing…I look before I step off into it.
Banks get robbed but I don’t refrain from using them because they do.
As it was, I was surprised by the amount and type of security I would encounter throughout the United States when it seemed out of proportion…often in venues that seemed to make little sense. Hopefully, the jobs provided a pleasant employ for the hired security.
Are there churches that should hire security? Doubtless there are. But they are surely statistically insignificant and it would be a decision of the parish priest and the diocesan bishop.
The death of this priest is assuredly a tragedy…for his village, for France as well as for Europe. On the other hand, as a priest, I certainly do not feel any need to take any more precaution, personally, tomorrow than I did yesterday.
Could I, as a priest, be the victim of a radicalised person? Yes, it is certainly not completely outside the realm of possibility. I could more likely be the victim of a robbery attempt gone awry…or the victim of someone having a medical crisis and losing control of their car and my life being taken in that way…or the victim of someone in a spell of lunacy, such as was that madwoman who assaulted Pope Benedict some years ago. I don’t see myself in need of armed guard because, in the whole of the EU, individual persons fall victim to these freakish occurrences or because I cannot discount that this could happen to me.
As for the response you say you received about churches being safe from violence…no place is safe from violence. One can be the victim of a home invasion or other violent crime in one’s own home. One could be blown up in one’s auto. One could be felled by a sniper. One could also be struck by meteorite, for that matter.
One can take rational, measured responses to real threats that one actually faces. I remember many years ago visiting Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. They had police that were present, right at hand for the distribution of Communion, because there had been a demonstration of some sort that had occurred in the cathedral during Mass in which there was the deliberate desecration of the Blessed Sacrament.
The response seemed at least reasonable for that particular cathedral as it was evident that the whole incident was profoundly traumatic for the community of the cathedral…but I never saw such a response replicated elsewhere in the United States because there had been one incident in one American cathedral, however, and the fact that it happened did not cause me to think that was something that should be implemented where I minister.
In Europe, the synagogues often have enhanced security…which is understandable in light of the particular actual threats they face and the historical realities that we remember…all too well. There are churches where in Europe there is extra security…Saint Peter’s Basilica being a prime example. A Church just a couple of blocks away, however, has none. And I neither think there is need for it nor would I be supportive of it. I do think the issue of radicalisation does need effective address. I also think there are issues, personal to us, that we have to address regarding realities particular to Europe.
Now that’s common sense. :tiphat: