A Public Letter to the Faithful - Attacks on Churches
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The Christian church is more than the living assembly of believers, their faith, and the way of life they seek to follow. The building itself is a witness. It stands as the work of architects, engineers, carpenters, stonemasons, cabinet-makers, metal-workers, painters, gilders, sculptors, and countless other artists and artisans whose skill, labour, and sacrifice raised it. These structures are heritage and legacy. They embody a tangible portion of Western Civilisation and of the visible Church. That is precisely why they are targeted.
Those who set churches on fire—and who do so with grim regularity across the world—act to erase that heritage. The aim is the obliteration of the visible marks of Christianity and, with them, the Civilisation that carried it.
As a Westerner, a Christian, and a priest, I state plainly:
Charity begins at home. Hospitality toward the stranger does not require and can never justify the systematic dismantling of our lives, our culture, our Civilisation, or the open profession of the Faith. We retain the right—indeed the duty—to stand firmly and resolutely at the foot of the Holy Cross and say a clear, non-negotiable “No” to such destruction and to courageously reject the diabolical, malevolent antichrist ideologies that drive it. These ideologies actively negate the Divinity of Jesus Christ, deny His Passion and Crucifixion, reject the Resurrection and refuse the place of Jesus as God with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the unity of the Most Holy Trinity.
The same principles should apply to acts of desecration of the Holy Eucharist and the Tabernacles that are home to Christ truly present in the Eucharistic species, acts of defacing and destruction of images and statues, persecution, harassment, victimisation, physical assault, attempts against the lives of the Christian faithful, bias against Christians by Police forces, politicians and civil authorities (as is often the case with the persecution of Christian street preachers) among many other acts that seek the muzzling and suppression of the Christian Faith, for the convenience of public governance pragmatism and senseless political correctness.
Christ is King
Public governance convenience, false pragmatism and absurd political correctness are not the true measure.
The Cross remains the measure and the standard in Western Civilisation.
This is not a call to hatred of persons, but an unequivocal refusal to surrender the visible Church and the Civilisation that sustained it, having itself evolved under the banner of Christ for two thousand years.
Public governance convenience, false pragmatism and absurd political correctness are not the true measure. The Cross remains the measure and the standard in Western Civilisation. We will not pretend that every assault upon it is merely misfortune or random crime. Where the pattern is deliberate, we name it. Where the cost is the erasure of what our forebears built in stone and faith, we resist. Wherever, whenever and whomever the full Divinity of Jesus, the Crucifixion, His Death and Resurrection, the Holy Trinity are denied by, we courageously must expose it.
Therefore, Christian Brothers and Sisters:
Remain steadfast! Always! Anywhere! And at all times! Guard what has been entrusted to you. Pray for the conversion of enemies and for the fortitude, resolution, perseverance and courage of the faithful.
The buildings can be rebuilt; the refusal to abandon the Faith and its public expression cannot be negotiated away. For Christ is King and we shall never surrender.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
