Portland Catholic Church vandalized with pro-abortion graffiti

A Portland Catholic Church was vandalized with pro-abortion graffiti over the weekend, marking the most recent instance of assaults directed at church buildings over abortion. 

Andy Ngo, a senior editor at The Publish Millennial, shared a post on X Sunday with photos of vandalism at a Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon. “Those attending mass this morning at St. Patrick’s Church in northwest Portland, Ore. arrived to find it had been vandalized again with a pro-abortion message,” he stated.

The photographs shared by Ngo documented graffiti on the doorways of the church studying “F— U” and “My body my choice.” An nearly an identical message was spray-painted on the bottom on the exterior of the church, though the phrase “you” was written out.

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Noting that “the door is still stain-bleached of a removed hateful message,” Ngo added, “Multiple Christian houses of worship have been attacked in Portland since 2020 by far-left extremists but the left-wing leadership [district attorney] and law enforcement do not treat them as bias crimes.”

He additionally stated the “photo source wants to remain anonymous.”

As Ngo highlighted in his X put up, assaults on church buildings in Portland have turn into a typical prevalence since 2020 though vandalism of homes of worship nationwide accelerated following the publication of the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s leaked draft resolution within the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Girls’s Well being Group in 2022. The draft resolution confirmed that the justices had been poised to overturn the Roe v. Wade resolution that legalized abortion nationwide. 

The vandalism directed at church buildings continued after the Supreme Court docket handed down the official Dobbs resolution overruling Roe and figuring out that the U.S. Structure doesn’t comprise a proper to abortion. A picture shared on social media in July 2022 reveals that St. Patrick’s was one of many church buildings focused by pro-abortion vandals within the rapid aftermath of the Dobbs resolution. 

In 2022, the graffiti on the picket doorways on the entrance of the church learn “My body my choice” whereas the phrases “F— you” had been written on each of the partitions adjoining to the doorways. The message contained within the graffiti at St. Patrick’s in 2022 and 2024 means that in each circumstances, the vandals had a pro-abortion motive. 

Even earlier than the Dobbs resolution was on the horizon, St. Patrick’s discovered itself topic to vandalism. In keeping with a 2021 report revealed within the Nationwide Catholic Reporter, “In June, vandals lit fires and wrote graffiti on the grounds at St. Patrick Church in Northwest Portland; a month later additional graffiti appeared on the historic church’s wooden front doors.”

The Nationwide Catholic Reporter illustrated how a number of different Catholic church buildings in Portland fell sufferer to vandalism in the identical time interval, particularly St. Andrew’s, St. Francis of Assisi and Holy Redeemer. 

A spreadsheet compiled by the advocacy group CatholicVote that is preserving observe of all acts of vandalism directed at Catholic church buildings within the U.S. since 2020 lists assaults on St. Mary’s Cathedral in February 2021, All Saints Catholic Church in June 2022, the Archdiocese of Portland Workplace in July 2022, Holy Household Catholic Church in November 2023 and the Grotto Monastery in February 2024 as further cases the place Portland Catholic church buildings had been focused. 

Aside from the assault on St. Mary’s Cathedral and the incident on the Grotto Monastery, no arrests had been recorded within the spreadsheet. The Household Analysis Council included a fireplace at a vacant Korean church in Portland on its checklist of acts of vandalism directed at church buildings within the first three months of 2023. 

The US Convention of Catholic Bishops launched a report earlier this 12 months that recognized “attacks on houses of worship” because the “largest threat to religious liberty in 2024.” The physique of bishops’ Committee on Spiritual Liberty warned that “There is no greater threat to religious liberty than for one’s house of worship to become a place of danger, and the country sadly finds itself in a place where that danger is real.”