ITALY: Young Muslims, after stealing from rectory, break into church, defecate and urinate by altar.

In Mantua, Italy, there was another event to inspire more dialogue.

From the Gazzetta di Mantova:

SERRAVALLE: First the broke in to the rectory at Libiola and stole money of the fund for the children of Grest; then, not satisfied, they went to the nearby church which, after last year’s earthquake, is a simple temporary structure of plastic and, next to the altar defecated and urinated.  It was a contemptuous, vandalic, and sacrilegious act.  Those responsible would also be identified, because a woman saw them leaving the tent.  Those concerned are four young men of Moroccan origin, one a resident of Serravalle, the others from Ostiglia and nearby towns.

The article goes into more details.  It ends with the priest:

In the meantime, a disappointed Fr. Eugenio [Ferrari] vented:

“If they had come to steal money because they were hungry, I wouldn’t have even gone to make the official complaint; I would have forgiven them.  But what they did in the church is a gesture you just can’t overlook, it is inexcusable.  … I’m sorry also because, as it seems, the deed was done by four young Moroccans.  The showed disdain for our religion.  But if I had done the same thing in one of their mosques, they’d cut my head off, no?”

Sts. Nunilo and Alodia, pray for us.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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18 Comments

  1. Bea says:

    No comment is sufficient to vent my disgust.
    And some prelates want to dialogue?
    When will they wake up?

  2. “When will they wake up?”
    don’t know what it will take. The other side is not interested in dialogue. Good question.

  3. Clinton R. says:

    So is this supposed to be the abundant ‘fruits’ of the fasting of Ramadan? How can Islam be defended over and over again? Gee, I guess more dialogue is needed.

  4. Lori Pieper says:

    Maybe some want to dialogue because of things like this:

    http://www.onislam.net/english/news/africa/450443-muslims-protect-egypt-copts-on-xmas.html

    I have documented a dozen other incidents like this in Egypt in the last couple of years. Perhaps those stupid punks in Mantua were representative of nothing much more than stupid young punks in general. Instant denouncing of an entire religion because of them is a bit much.

  5. RidersOnTheStorm says:

    Hear, hear.
    Excellent points and very well made, Lori

    Great article from ‘onislam’

    Following a deadly bombing on New Year’s eve where innocent Christians were killed, Egyptians offered to gather as Muslim human shields to protect all Christian congregations at churches, schools and other places.

    I wonder how quick we Christians in the West would be to reciprocate and put our lives on the line to protect Muslim brothers and sisters if they were being attacked at mosques?

  6. Scott W. says:

    Howard Kainz has an article on the bizarre phenomenon of Western-liberal Islamophila:

    http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/islamophilia-epidemica

  7. ray from mn says:

    Islamic adherents of the “Religion of Peace” proclaim to be such. But never once have I seen more than a handful of statements of disapproval of acts of terrorism, vandalism or violence by Muslims.

    “Islam” means “submission.” I guess they submit to everything except Christianity.

  8. Cosmos says:

    Lori Pieper,

    You are fighting a straw-man. No one doubts there are plenty of peace-loving, virtuous Muslims. No one is surprised to hear there are heroic Muslims who stand-up for their neighbors. No one is opposed to reaching out in good will to the Muslim community.

    What people oppose is a sugar-coated “dialogue” that simply ignores the reality on the ground; one that would label Islam a “religion of peace.” To many, it appears that Islam has has a long, on-going history of attempting to conquer Christian territory and/or force conversions. It appears that Islam has many precepts that appear to call for violence and have been interpreted that way by many Muslims in a manner that seems consistent with the life of its great historical figures. And it appears that Islam breeds extremism in both first- and third-world countries in a way that other religions do not.

    Such perceptions are not simple prejudice. People do not equate Bhuddism with the violent acts of a few monks precisely because they perceive the overall context differently. We don’t expect Muslims to simply ignore the U.S. military’s presence in Muslim countries, and take it for granted that America is a shining light for the rest of the world.

    So let’s talk, so long as talking doesn’t mean self-righteous, politically-correct elites reinforcing a victimhood narrative or allowing a one-sided (ultimately patronizing) conversation because it makes them feel magnanimous. Perhaps 30 years ago we still expect our leaders to take a responsible approach and to promote the rights of the Christians suffering in many Muslim countries behind the scenes, regardless of what they say officially. There days I am not so sure that expectation is realistic..

  9. Supertradmum says:

    All one needs to do is follow all the persecution watch sites. Also, in Great Britain, the Catholic population is about 8.4% and the Muslim population is 4.8%. Catholics are not getting married and not having babies.

    As the Catholic population implodes, watch for more desecrations and the taking over of churches, as the Muslims believe that if a mosque has ever been built in an area. that area belongs to them. When I was delayed in Gatwick in London a month ago, I went into the ecumenical chapel to say a rosary. In the hour I was there, four Christians came in and about twenty Muslims, who have an area for prayer.

    I expect more desecrations, merely to show power and hatred. After all, we are idolaters to the Muslim.

  10. HeatherPA says:

    “Peaceful, loving Muslims” are the Easter/ Christmas Catholics of Islam. They say they are Muslim because that is how they were raised, but they are worldly, secular in their lives, and celebrate Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter for the presents and their kids, they don’t read the Koran and have little understanding of what their faith is about or the doctrines in it.

    Why do people think that these kinds of Muslims are the majority is a mystery. They are most emphatically NOT.

    There is no public outcry given by these so-called moderate Muslims when women are burned with acid in England, churches are desecrated in USA or abroad, girls are raped and killed by family…

    Just because the media always calls the tragic results of their Jihad as done by “radicals” or “extremists” does not make it true!
    The Koran is very clear in what it expects of its followers!

    The media also says a vast majority of Catholics support abortion at any stage and trumpets our “devout” catholic Nancy Pelosi calling it sacred and being a poster kid for American Catholicism.
    Since when are they honest?

  11. AvantiBev says:

    May I suggest for all commenters above a new book by Raymond Ibrahim: CRUCIFIED AGAIN available from Amazon and other booksellers. Ibrahim reads and speaks Arabic as well as English and has the close family background to explore what is going on NOW as well as the scholarly background to put all in a historic perspective.

    One of the things that worries me most about my fellow Christians and fellow Americans in this era is that we have been steeped in a steaming cup of non-judgmentalism since at least the 1970’s. It has left our brains atrophied, often unable to make necessary distinctions and rational decisions to ensure our survival. Whether discussing Islamic jihad or ephebophilia within our Church, we cannot simply shrug off our responsibility to make prudent judgments about others actions which place us and those we love at risk.

    At any rate, Ibrahim’s book will add to your gray matter; so handy when events necessitate you make some rational and prudent decisions in order to stay alive.

  12. NBW says:

    I am glad that the priest spoke out. He is right, if someone would have done that in a Mosque they would have been killed. Good thing it didn’t happen here; I wonder how Cardinal Dolan would have responded.

  13. Moro says:

    Reminds me of a story my father told me of his boyhood pastor grabbing a shotgun to stop a thief. Yet another reason to keep and bear arms!

  14. MouseTemplar says:

    Argh, after an unusually tough day of being “socially euthanized” at work for being a practicing Catholic [administered by the ‘Pelosi-Style Catholics’ of our workplace–the atheist/secularists don’t have to lift a finger…] I logged on to see this post.

    Instead of feeling dispirited by it, I decided to fast today for all the players in this story and for my crabby co-workers. Sigh.

  15. Lori Pieper says:

    Cosmos,

    You are making a very large number of unwarranted assumptions about me, since I never said a word about what kind of dialogue I was talking about. It’s you who have constructed the straw man, not me.

    Yes, dialogue should not be overly-optimistic, but I also pray it isn’t put forward with the paranoid suspicion I have noted here. In reality, though, we must hope for and aim for something much more daring than dialogue, and that in reality is our only hope: conversion. Since Christianity is rapidly dying in Europe, the only hope is if the Muslims convert. The Muslim population in the U.S. and Europe seems ripe for this, especially where there is less influence from the radicalized extremists (yes, I know Islam proscribes death for conversion, so we are really swimming upstream).

    But there is growing evidence from a number of sources that God may be preparing the way for the conversion of Muslims in large numbers. I recently listened to the audio of a book called “Dreams and Visions” where an Evangelical missionary came across literally dozens of cases where Muslims in the Middle East had experienced powerful dreams or visions of Jesus urging them to follow him exclusively. Many turned their lives to Christ interiorly, even where they couldn’t do so in the open. The same thing has been noted by Catholics. Surely instead and hand-wringing and moaning so much, we could devote prayer and energy toward this end and help further real knowledge of Jesus among Muslims?

    But this would involve not just dialogue by a few higher-ups on both sides, but a real willingness to get to know each other, to regard each other as neighbors and brothers and sisters on both sides. If Christians and Muslims can do this even in the poisonous radicalized atmosphere in Egypt, as in the article, why not in the U.S. and Europe?

  16. yatzer says:

    I have been out of town for a few days and only saw headlines about this desecration. Somehow none of them even mentioned that the perps were Muslim. Maybe it was in the story; I don’t know. It is interesting though that nothing appeared in any of the 4 or 5 headlines I saw.

  17. HeatherPa wrote,

    “The Koran is very clear in what it expects of its followers!”

    yep. The rare instance of moderate Muslims protecting Christians doesn’t change the overall complexion of Islam. Sorry. When they’re not trying to kill us and/or the Jews they are killing each other.There are sects.
    The human rights record of Islamic countries? Religious freedom in those countries? Lori is right in defending the few and holding them up as a good example but it’s the exception not the ruleUou’re right on this one Heather. You have to KNOW it’s teachings ans history.
    Riders asks the question,

    ” put our lives on the line to protect Muslim brothers and sisters if they were being attacked at mosques?” Who would be attacking them? Christians don’t typically attack mosques. It’s the other way around.

  18. Kathleen10 says:

    Yes by all means, conversion for the muslims. I’m all for it. But will we headless remnants care if the muslims convert?
    Sorry, but when I see a duck I expect it to quack, and I’ve seen too much of the religion of peace to expect anything other than barbarianism, treachery, and murder. I refuse to quibble about what we should talk about. Dialogue with the wolf is stupid if he is just waiting for an opportunity to grab the sheep. Let us not be stupid. There is almost nothing in past or recent history to suggest there is any other plan than to eliminate us by one method or another. My trusting days are over.
    Changes to immigration law to return to immigration that best serves our country, as immigration was intended. Get rid of Ted Kennedy’s changes. They failed. Most Americans would change those in a heartbeat if they could. Too bad we have nobody listening to us who’s a lawyer/politician.
    Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

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