NYPD’s Secular Response to Church Attacks Ignores Spiritual Warfare
The Catholic News Agency reports that the New York Police Department (NYPD) will increase patrols at Staten Island churches following several criminal incidents, including a violent disruption during Mass at St. Ann’s Church on January 9, 2026, which injured two officers. NYPD Staten Island Borough Commander Melissa Eger dismissed religious motivation, calling the crimes “acts of opportunism and theft.” State Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton demanded heightened security, while “Fr.” Jacob Thumma—pastor of the affected parishes—attributed the violence to insufficient mental health resources, urging “compassionate care” for the perpetrator.
Naturalism Masquerading as Pastoral Care
Commander Eger’s insistence that these attacks lack anti-Catholic intent contradicts the Church’s perennial teaching: Ecclesia semper est persecuta (the Church is always persecuted). The reduction of sacrilegious acts to mere “opportunism” echoes the indifferentism condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (1864), which anathematized the notion that “the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Proposition 55). By refusing to acknowledge the spiritual dimension of these crimes, civil authorities tacitly endorse the secularist fallacy that the Church is merely a “house of worship”—a term Scarcella-Spanton employed—rather than the sole ark of salvation.
“We must continue to invest in mental health resources that support families [and] provide timely interventions before crises occur.” — “Fr.” Jacob Thumma
Thumma’s exclusive focus on psychiatric solutions exemplifies the naturalism denounced by Pope St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), which exposed Modernism’s tendency to reduce divine realities to psychological or social phenomena. Nowhere does he mention the sacrament of Penance, the power of exorcism, or the necessity of prayer—tools the Church has wielded against diabolical disruption for centuries. His silence perpetuates the conciliar sect’s abandonment of ex opere operato grace in favor of humanistic therapy.
Omission of Supernatural Realities: A Betrayal of Catholic Duty
The article’s participants universally ignore the doctrinal truth that attacks on Catholic churches constitute direct assaults on Christ the King. Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas (1925) decreed that nations must submit to Christ’s social reign or face chaos: “When God and Jesus Christ are removed from laws and states, the foundations of authority are destroyed.” Yet Scarcella-Spanton’s pledge that “nobody should feel unsafe where they are praying” equates the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with generic “prayer,” ignoring the Real Presence—a blasphemous leveling consistent with Vatican II’s false ecumenism.
Meanwhile, Thumma’s call to “pray for the individual involved” while neglecting to demand his conversion or repentance reveals the conciliar sect’s defective notion of charity. Contrast this with St. Augustine’s axiom: Interficere errorem, diligere errantem (Kill the error, love the errant). True pastoral care would require admonishing the perpetrator about hellfire and offering the sacraments—not enabling his delusions through undefined “healing.”
Symptom of Conciliar Apostasy
These incidents expose the rotten fruit of the post-1958 revolution. The absence of any reference to Satan—the “murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44)—betrays the neo-church’s surrender to naturalism. Thumma’s plea for “mental health resources” directly implements the Modernist program outlined in the Holy Office’s Lamentabili Sane (1907), which condemned the claim that “the Church is incapable of effectively defending evangelical ethics” (Proposition 63). By rejecting supernatural weapons (exorcism, sacramentals, public reparation) in favor of state-funded counseling, the conciliar clergy deny the Church’s God-given authority to cast out demons (Mark 16:17).
Moreover, the NYPD’s promise to protect “houses of worship” alongside mosques and synagogues institutionalizes the heresy of indifferentism—the lie that all religions are equally valid. Pope Pius IX condemned this in Syllabus Proposition 15: “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true.” True Catholics recognize that churches are not mere “prayer spaces” but consecrated ground where heaven touches earth—a truth obliterated by the conciliar sect’s false ecumenism.
Conclusion: The Church Militant vs. the World’s False Peace
The Staten Island attacks are not random crimes but skirmishes in the cosmic war between Christ and Belial. The secular authorities’ response—and the conciliar clergy’s complicity—proves their allegiance to the “world peace” condemned in the Syllabus (Proposition 62) rather than the Pax Christi that demands submission to His Kingship. Until the Church’s true sons reclaim the Lex Orandi of the Traditional Latin Mass and denounce Vatican II’s apostasies, such desecrations will escalate—punishments for rejecting the Social Reign of Christ the King.
Source:
NYPD increasing presence at churches after incidents at Staten Island Catholic parishes (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 16.01.2026