Priest punched during Sunday Mass in Berlin

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That’s terrible.

It makes me wonder again, why no one stepped in to stop this guy. No mention of anyone defending the priest, or chasing after the guy.
 
It might have happened too fast, or maybe there was just a couple of 80-year-olds at the Mass.

I have taken to looking for heavy objects I could grab, like candlesticks, ust in case I need to fend off an attacker at Mass. I started doing this around the time of the St. Joseph’s Oratory priest attack, which I believe was closely followed by some priest attack in Europe where the attacker was decked by several old church ladies.
 
I think it’s often shock more than cowardice. People freeze while their brain goes “what did I just see?” By the time they realize, “yup, he totally just clocked the priest” the guy has already run out the door.
 
Yeah, I’m trying to get past that in my own mind.
Actually the case of the woman in Philly standing where she should not be in the middle of Mass would have set off my spidey sense.
Basically if you’re in a part of the Church where you don’t look like you belong I’m going to watch you.
 
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See I’m the type of person who never really believed this kind of thing happened much.

But about a month ago I was watching a live stream Mass from a British city and this guy can be seen walking round erratically. He then marches right up near the sanctuary steps and starts shouting at the priest and using the F word in the middle of the consecration.

A reasonably elderly usher appears and starts pushing him in the chest to march him out. No one else helps though.

It got me thinking - what’s the right thing to do in that situation? Do you use force to remove someone or just ignore them? Should you help the usher or does that make the disruption worse?

I can only see the problem getting worse. Certainly over here anyway. Although we don’t have the same worry over weapons there has been a loss of support services for homeless people with substance abuse issues. So I imagine churches in city centres will become more at risk because they are open to everyone/anyone.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I have taken to looking for heavy objects I could grab, like candlesticks, ust in case I need to fend off an attacker at Mass. I started doing this around the time of the St. Joseph’s Oratory priest attack
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About the time ISIS was blowing up Egyptian churches in Alexandria, we started scanning our sanctuary for bombs pre-service. Hopefully it would never happen here, but there are a lot of places to hide one (pews, lecterns, icon stands etc.)
Nik said:
It got me thinking - what’s the right thing to do in that situation? Do you use force to remove someone or just ignore them? Should you help the usher or does that make the disruption worse?
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I’d get them out of there as quickly as possible. They’ve already interrupted the flow of service, might as well help remove them fast and resume service.
 
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Some big cathedrals in USA have this down to a science. St. Patrick’s in NYC has a ton of ushers who aren’t elderly, because there have been a lot of incidents of people yelling or protesting especially during the big televised holiday Masses, and the ushers get those folks out of the church right away. I would imagine the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in DC has super-tight security because it’s DC and everything there has super-tight security.

I have been to several cathedrals in other cities where they hire a robust-looking (And probably armed) off-duty cop for security, to make sure nobody acts up. Philadelphia really should do the same. Perhaps now they have.
 
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