Blog #248 Catholic Church Under Seige and America’s Survival
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Catholic Church Under Siege
MICHAEL T. FLYNN LTG USA (RET)
MAR 17, 2026
I have spent a lifetime studying how nations maintain stability and how they unravel when the pillars that sustain them begin to erode. Contrary to popular imagination, societies rarely collapse in dramatic fashion, decline usually unfolds quietly. Institutions that once anchored moral order are gradually weakened while political leaders, media elites, and sometimes even the institutions themselves hesitate to acknowledge what is plainly occurring. I have watched this pattern emerge in fragile states abroad. Today, troubling indicators suggest that similar dynamics are beginning to emerge in the United States.
One of the clearest examples is the growing pattern of hostility directed at Catholic churches across our country. For those trained in national security and political warfare, the pattern is recognizable. It reflects a form of pressure often directed at longstanding moral institutions that shape civil society independent of government authority. When such institutions come under sustained attack without meaningful response from political leadership, law enforcement, or cultural institutions, the result is not simply vandalism. It is the gradual weakening of one of the moral guardrails that helps sustain a free sovereign nation.
Since the George Floyd riots that swept the country in 2020, more than 550 documented acts of violence, vandalism, arson, desecration, and intimidation have targeted Catholic churches in the United States. Those numbers likely represent only a portion of the true total. Researchers who track these incidents believe the actual number may be significantly higher because some pastors and parish leaders choose not to publicize attacks out of concern for their congregations or fear that reporting them will draw further hostility.
The trajectory itself deserves serious attention. In 2020, roughly 60 incidents were recorded across 27 states. By 2022, that number had risen to 143 attacks in a single year, the highest annual figure in the available data, with incidents occurring in 36 states. By 2025, attacks had spread to 43 states. When hostile activity against a specific institution expands geographically across nearly the entire country, it is no longer credible to dismiss it as random or purely local behavior.
The nature of the attacks reinforces this conclusion. Across numerous incidents, statues of the Virgin Mary and the saints have been destroyed or mutilated. Altars have been desecrated. In some cases, the Eucharist, which Catholics believe to be the literal presence of Christ and the center of their faith, has been removed from tabernacles and deliberately profaned. Churches have been vandalized with explicitly anti-Catholic graffiti, satanic imagery, and threats directed at clergy and parishioners. Several incidents escalated to arson. These are not acts of random mischief. The objects targeted reflect a level of familiarity with Catholic beliefs and practices, suggesting intentional hostility toward the faith itself.
Equally concerning is the lack of legal accountability. According to available tracking data, arrests have been made in only about 30 percent of the more than 550 incidents recorded over the past five years. In any other context involving targeted attacks against a specific community, such a clearance rate would trigger immediate concern at the federal level. Yet the response from national institutions has been remarkably muted.
The uneven application of federal law has also raised legitimate questions. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) technically protects houses of worship. However, in recent years, federal enforcement priorities appeared to focus overwhelmingly on prosecuting pro-life demonstrators outside abortion facilities. Many of those prosecuted were elderly parishioners or clergy engaged in peaceful prayer. Meanwhile, the individuals responsible for vandalizing churches, firebombing pregnancy centers, and threatening clergy often faced little visible federal attention. More than twenty pro-life Catholics were prosecuted under the statute during this period, while attacks on the churches that those same Catholics attended rarely received comparable federal action. The signal sent by such disparity is difficult to ignore.
History offers important context for understanding why attacks against the Catholic Church often emerge early in periods of political and ideological upheaval. For centuries, the Church has asserted that human dignity originates from God and therefore exists prior to the authority of the state. That doctrine places inherent limits on government power. For political movements seeking comprehensive control over society, institutions that command moral authority independent of the state inevitably become obstacles.
This dynamic has appeared repeatedly throughout modern history. During the Cristero War in Mexico, revolutionary authorities executed priests and shuttered churches in an effort to eradicate Catholic practice from public life. During the Spanish Civil War, thousands of clergy were murdered by radical factions who viewed the Church as a barrier to ideological control. Under Soviet domination across Eastern Europe, Catholic institutions were surveilled, infiltrated, and suppressed because they represented the most durable source of organized resistance to state authority. Similar patterns appeared in Cuba, Nicaragua, and communist China. In each case, weakening the Church was seen as a prerequisite for expanding political power.
Viewed through that historical lens, the scale and persistence of attacks on Catholic institutions in the United States deserve far more scrutiny than they have received. More than 550 incidents over five years, combined with a low arrest rate, limited federal enforcement, and minimal national media coverage, raise legitimate national security questions about the health of civil society in our own country.
Another factor that warrants discussion is the limited response from the Vatican. The Holy See regularly speaks on global issues ranging from climate policy to migration to international economics. Yet the sustained pattern of attacks on Catholic churches in the United States has produced relatively little direct attention at the highest levels of Church leadership. Whether this reflects strategic caution, deference to local bishops, or other internal considerations is open to interpretation. What is clear is that when the Bishop of Rome does not speak clearly on a matter affecting millions of Catholics, it inevitably shapes the level of urgency with which the issue is addressed throughout the Church.
That absence of emphasis has practical consequences. If Rome does not highlight the problem, local dioceses may treat incidents as isolated events rather than as part of a broader pattern. Researchers tracking these attacks believe the documented numbers may represent only a fraction of what is actually occurring. Some analysts estimate that the real number could plausibly be two or even three times higher than currently recorded.
Public awareness of the issue remains limited. Despite hundreds of attacks across dozens of states, national television coverage has been sparse. One analysis found only 38 national news segments addressing these incidents during the entire five-year period. That gap between reality and public awareness creates an information vacuum, allowing the pattern to continue largely unnoticed.
This issue extends beyond the Catholic Church itself. The United States was founded on the principle that religious liberty is a core pillar of a free society. When attacks against any religious institution begin to spread widely without a serious institutional response, the long-term consequences extend far beyond the targeted community. The erosion of religious freedom weakens one of the fundamental safeguards that protect individual liberty from government overreach.
Historically, anti-Catholic violence in America has surfaced before. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Catholic communities faced organized campaigns of intimidation and destruction driven by political movements hostile to their presence in public life. Those campaigns also began with incidents that many dismissed as isolated acts of vandalism before the broader pattern became undeniable.
Today, we may once again be approaching such an inflection point. The question is whether the institutions responsible for protecting American citizens will recognize the warning signs early enough to reverse the trajectory.
America First does not mean isolation from the world. It means safeguarding the institutions that make America worth defending. Our nation was built on faith, family, and the conviction that human rights come from God rather than from government decree. When attacks against those foundations are ignored or minimized, the long-term consequences reach far beyond any single religious community.
Scripture reminds us that moral courage is required in moments like these. Saint Paul wrote in Ephesians, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.” The armor exists. The question facing both Church leadership and our political institutions is whether they are willing to put it on and stand.