On Sunday, May 10, after church mass, a group of young Muslim immigrants interrupted a Catholic procession in honor of the Virgin Mary. They hurled verbal insults, shouts, and threats as the group passed in front of the Islamic Cultural Center in Conselice, a small town in lower Romagna.
Approximately 100 Catholic Christians, including several small children, were preparing to receive their first Holy Communion, when Muslims from the Islamic Center began howling verbal abuses and threats at the passing procession.
According to an eyewitness, “During the slow procession of the sacred image, some kids on the ground floor of the building of the headquarters of the Attadamun Islamic Cultural Center began shouting a kind of chorus like “Get out of here” and “Go away from here.”
The Catholic participants, especially the children, were reportedly stunned and confused; they halted the procession before regrouping and hurrying past the Center.
Muslim attacks on Christians and Christian symbols are on the increase in Italy. Earlier this year, a crucifix was violently destroyed “in close proximity to a populated mosque” and a statue of the Virgin Mary was destroyed and urinated on by a group of North Africans in Italy.
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As a Catholic in France, I experienced the most uncivil behavior at my local church during this year’s evening Easter Vigil!! In a group of 5 teenagers, one of whom was described by his groupmate as being Muslim, spoke loudly, mocked the parishioners, played with candles (dropping pouring their melted wax on chairs), staring down those who asked for silence, laughing, etc. showed absolute disrespect and dishonor to the Church and her people. Granted, this church is in a Muslim-Majority city in France, it has made me want to abandon my local church for another that is further, but certain I will not witness such behavior. I feel that it is somewhat wrong to leave this church for another, but the topic was not publicly addressed after the fact and this is where my disappointment lies.
This is what you get for being politically correctness.
Beloved Sister in Christ, Sandra:
You are in my humble prayers before the Lord as are all persecuted Christians. What can be the best solution to your dilemma? Perhaps at this point, you might thing of moving to a non Muslim city/town.
It seems the Police are not doing their job in protecting you all and that is a real shame. Did anyone call the police regarding the bad and illegal behavior of these haters of Christ? They know that the Easter Vigil is the greatest Holy Day for Catholics and all Christians. They claim to have respect for Jesus as a Prophet, Yet they hate the followers of Jesus.
They are a people deeply deceived by the devil. “Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered”. They are not like European Immigrants to the USA who came here and are thankful just to be here to get a good Job and work hard. No. They want tolerance and often ask for Sharia Law to be implemented, yet they are no Tolerant tegarding anyone or any other religion except their particular Version of Islam. Shiites hate the Sunni and vice a versa,
But God help us if the situation was reversed!!
Love the peace filled religion that is so tolerant of everyone.
Dear Rev. Deacon Pasquella, and other commenters,
Thank you for your prayers and concern. I have been praying to God for over 10 years now to help us move somewhere else. The prayers go unanswered. I am an American who married a Catholic Frenchman. When we married in California and moved to France under what I understood to be “temporarily” terms, my understanding was that we would be in Downtown Paris. How we wound up in such a city is almost like a punishment. I have begged for forgiveness for my sins. With true remorse. I didn’t understand the heavy implications that arose from purchasing a house in this city in the Paris suburbs. I didn’t understand that once you purchased a home in France, you most likely stayed for life. (Not as easy as in America to change for a better neighborhood later.) My husband has Multiple Sclerosis (but no disability whatsoever 20 years post-diagnosis), and because of that it is hard for him to find an insurer to cover us for the Private Mortgage Insurance, obligatory in France. I pray to return to America because I feel this is where I truly belong – I would like to say my whole family too, but it feels as if my husband tricked me by bringing me here with our California-born baby at the time.
What really surprised me about this incident was that the group of “regular” parishioners who were known among the church kept silent. Was it fear? Was I overreacting? True, I have zero tolerance for such behavior in a church on the most Holy of celebrations. There were some unofficial parishioners trying to correct their behavior, and I ended up taking my son and his little neighbor friend away and ready to return home. A woman stopped me as we were walking out the door1 and insisted that I stay downstairs. Anyway – this is what irks me as well, the most HOLY Mass of the year was completely spoiled by these evil-doers. I wanted to praise my lord and and the community of Christians during this mass, and even removing myself from their presence didn’t eliminate my profound disappointment and disgust of such pure disrespect. But that was just one mass, the truth of the matter is, in the long term, that I feel like I don’t want to have any part of this church any longer. This type of behavior should never happen in a church. It is the first time I have ever witnessed such shameful actions. And I hope the last.
Please pray that God will take my family and I back to America. Thank you and bless you all.
Sandra
PS: I should add that the police were not called, as these youths were invited to witness the baptism, of I guess a classmate/neighbor, etc. There are many many project housings in this city, so the Christians cannot really avoid interacting, befriending Muslims (apparently Jesus would have too, but I am now convinced this “religion” has been hijacked by the Devil himself). I don’t know who from the Church invited these youths, but someone did. And I don’t know if they were scolded/punished after the fact, or a slap on the wrists, which is most common in France even for violent acts. So, just to be clear it wasn’t an issue of lack of police protection.
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