Police suspect arsonist destroyed historic Catholic church building

By Art Moore

The remains St. Colman Catholic Church in Shady Spring, West Virginia, on June 26, 2022. (Courtesy Beaver Volunteer Fire Department)
The remains St. Colman Catholic Church in Shady Spring, West Virginia, on June 26, 2022. (Courtesy Beaver Volunteer Fire Department)

Amid a series of attacks and threats against churches, faith-based organizations and crisis pregnancy centers that is under FBI investigation, a historic Catholic church burned to the ground Sunday.

Authorities are probing as arson the destruction of St. Colman Catholic Church in Shady Spring, West Virginia, the Catholic News Agency reported.

Built in 1878, St. Colman Catholic Church was a small, white building known as “The Little Catholic Church on Irish Mountain.” It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

Earlier this month, the FBI asked the public to assist the bureau’s investigation of “a series of attacks and threats targeting pregnancy resource centers and faith-based organizations across the country.”

Leads can be submitted through the FBI’s electronic tip form.

“The FBI takes all threats seriously and we continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners and will remain vigilant to protect our communities,” the bureau said in a statement.

The faith-based organizations include Catholic churches, the bureau confirmed to CNA.

The Washington Times was first to report the FBI investigation, June 17, as the Supreme Court prepared to decide the Mississippi abortion case. On Friday, the court published the majority opinion, which ruled the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.

Prior to the ruling in Dobbs v. Mississippi, a Catholic civil rights group and Republican lawmakers from both the House and Senate sent letters to Attorney General Merrick Garland to deploy the “full resources of the Department of Justice to apprehend and prosecute domestic terrorists who have recently attacked Catholic individuals, vandalized Catholic churches and torched Catholic-operated crisis pregnancy centers.”

The ad hoc group Jane’s Revenge has taken responsibility for attacks on crisis pregnancy centers. It’s now “open season” on “anti-choice” groups, Jane’s Revenge has said, vowing to “never stop, back down, slow down, or retreat.”

Jane’s Revenge calls for a “Night of Rage” after the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Activists are called to “hit the streets” in fulfillment of their promise that they would “riot.” The group warns: “To our oppressors: If abortions aren’t safe, you’re not either.”

The Department of Homeland Security’s National Terrorism Advisory issued a statement June 7 saying the nation “remains in a heightened threat environment” and “faith-based institutions” are among the targets.

On June 15, more than 120 members of Congress wrote to Garland about Jane’s Revenge. The letter listed 14 attacks since the leak of the majority opinion in the Mississippi abortion case, which showed the court was prepared to overturn Roe.

One week earlier, 16 senators wrote Garland asking what the Justice Department was doing about the attacks.

IMPORTANT NOTE: America’s innocent young children are shockingly being subject to massive recruitment efforts by LGBT and transgender groomers in the nation’s schools. Alongside this, the rest of the deranged Biden agenda continues to unfold, from engineering an ever-growing full-scale foreign invasion of America, to destroying the nation’s fossil fuel industries while purposely creating sky-high inflation, to bringing America to the brink of nuclear war. Now, the very same political, cultural and sexual revolutionaries responsible for all of this chaos and madness have finally dared to “come out” and publicly identify exactly who they consider to be their biggest enemy: CHRISTIANS. That’s right. Bible-believing, Judeo-Christian morals-affirming Christian believers – the kind who founded America, wrote her Constitution, and defended her with their lives for centuries – are now considered the biggest enemy threatening the future of America! This almost unbelievable trend is documented in the stunning June 2022 issue of WND’s critically acclaimed Whistleblower magazine (available in both print and digital editions), titled “ELITES FINALLY REVEAL THEIR #1 ENEMY: CHRISTIANS.”

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Art Moore

Art Moore, co-author of the best-selling book "See Something, Say Nothing," entered the media world as a PR assistant for the Seattle Mariners and a correspondent covering pro and college sports for Associated Press Radio. He reported for a Chicago-area daily newspaper and was senior news writer for Christianity Today magazine and an editor for Worldwide Newsroom before joining WND shortly after 9/11. He earned a master's degree in communications from Wheaton College. Read more of Art Moore's articles here.


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