A lay leader of a recently burned Canadian church has expressed the community’s forgiveness to the unknown arsonist. Leaning on his Christian faith, Steven Faltas spoke to those responsible while in an interview with CBN News:
A heartbreaking scene awaited Faltas as he rushed to the scene of the blaze in the middle of the night. At around 3:30 a.m. on the morning of July 19, 2021, Saint George Coptic Orthodox Church had already started to burn. Video footage taken by a neighbor of the church shows the building completely immolated by 4:30 a.m.
Faltas described what he saw:
The fire is just one of a string of recent Canadian church fires that have been deemed “suspicious” by authorities. This rampant destruction of church properties arose after reports by Indigenous Canadians that unmarked graves were discovered on residential school properties. As John Burger reported for Aleteia, "The existence of the cemeteries had been known, but the news this spring and summer has put the controversy over the residential schools back in the limelight."
The apparent anonymous vendetta against the Catholic Church, however, has extended to parishes on the periphery. Some of the burned churches, like St. George’s, are not Catholic and have no connection to residential schools. Faltas conveyed his frustration to CBN:
A separate CBN report cites 45 acts of vandalism on Canadian churches. Seventeen have been damaged by fire or completely burned down. The attacks have shaken Christian communities in 6 of 10 Canadian provinces. Kurt Jacobs, of the Calgary Police Service, commented:
While the loss of important houses of worship is devastating, there have been no fatalities linked to the fires. St. George’s is organizing events to keep their congregation together. They recently held a vigil before the ruins of St. George's, where they vowed to rebuild.
