Masked Arsonist Torches Catholic Church in Tampa, Florida
A masked man broke into the Incarnation Catholic Church northwest of Tampa, Florida, last weekend and set fire to the interior before fleeing, the Tampa Bay Times reported Tuesday.
Surveillance video shows a shirtless, masked man throwing projectiles to break a glass window on the church door to gain access to the building last Friday night around 10:30pm. Wearing long pants, white sneakers, and a surgical mask, the man entered the church carrying a large bottle in his hands.
The man proceeded to pour clear liquid on three wooden pews and then set fire to them before running away as the flames began to rise. In all, the man was in the church for no more than three minutes.
According to Hillsborough County sheriff Chad Chronister, although fire crews arrived swiftly to extinguish the fire, the church sanctuary suffered significant damage.
The church’s pastor, Father Michael Cormier, said last Sunday that he had considered closing the church for the weekend and cancelling Sunday Masses in order to have work done to the damaged pews.
“But we thought: if we did that, evil would win,” the priest said.
“We wouldn’t have Mass for one weekend, and evil would win,” he said. “We have been struck down by this, but not destroyed. In the end, evil never wins.”
Father Cormier also told the faithful that the proper Christian response to the incident was to pray for the arsonist.
“May this terrible act cause us to unify, to love one another more than ever, and to continue to make [our parish] the bedrock of faith and strength it has always been,” he prayed.
As Breitbart News has reported, over the past months vandals and arsonists have targeted Christian churches across the United States for acts of desecration.
In particular, Catholic churches were struck repeatedly during the week of July 10-16, which included the desecration of statues of Jesus and Mary — some of which were “beheaded or spray-painted” — along with graffiti on church buildings and several fires.
On July 10, a vandal sprayed a statue of the Virgin Mary that stands in front of Cathedral Preparatory School in Queens, New York, with the word “IDOL.” The rector of Cathedral Prep, Father James Kuroly, called the incident “an act of hatred.”
The following day, a 24-year-old man named Stephen Anthony Shields drove his minivan into the front of Queen of Peace church in Ocala, Florida. The man got out of the car and poured gasoline around the church lobby and lit it on fire, causing extensive damage. Police eventually arrested the suspect, and charged him with arson and resisting arrest, as well as attempted second-degree murder, since a number of parishioners were present in the church at the time of the attack.
https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2020/09/24/masked-arsonist-torches-catholic-church-in-tampa-florida/