In the early hours of the morning Friday, St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Arizona went up in flames. Father Ariel Luston was fast asleep when he got the call, and he rushed to his parish to find the fire mostly contained.
But the damage to the historic church was extensive, he shared in a phone interview with The Daily Wire: the sanctuary was heavily damaged, the pews and organ in the choir loft were destroyed, stained glass windows were shattered, and the entire interior had suffered severe smoke damage.
“I hope the insurance will cover everything,” the parish priest said. He says he stayed at the church that day from 1:30 in the morning until 9:00 that evening, working with authorities, dealing with the devastation, and speaking with concerned parishioners. He was overwhelmed at the love and support shown to his parish by the community and other Christian churches in the area.
“We will rise from the ashes,” he said he told his parishioners. “Ironically, it’s the people who are giving me words of support and love.”
St. Anthony of Padua is one of almost 300 Catholic Churches that have suffered fires or acts of vandalism since the leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion indicating Roe v. Wade would soon be overturned. Many of these incidents have been discovered to be pro-abortion attacks, accompanied by graffiti that warns, “If abortions aren’t safe than neither are you,” or “Jane’s Revenge,” referring to “Jane Doe” in the original Roe v. Wade case.
Fr. Luston does not know if his church suffered a pro-abortion attack. But he is not ruling that out.
“Who knows,” Luston told The Daily Wire.
The state is about to vote on Proposition 139, an amendment pushed by far-left abortion groups that would establish a “fundamental right to abortion” in Arizona, thereby allowing unlimited abortions up until birth in the state (Arizona for Abortion Access did not immediately respond to requests for comment).
His parish has repeatedly pushed back against the amendment in social media posts. “Join our Bishops in saying NO to Proposition 139. SAY NO TO ABORTION!” the church posted on Facebook on September 17.
“What makes a constitutional amendment especially grave is that our own Arizona legislators could lose the ability to regulate abortion in any meaningful way, leaving us with the potential for what would likely become nearly unrestricted abortion,” the bishops said in their statement. “Arizona law currently allows for abortions up until 15 weeks of pregnancy. Proposition 139, however, would go far beyond even this current law.”
The bishops also pointed out that the amendment would allow minors to get abortions without parental involvement or permission and remove safeguards for girls and women already in place at abortion clinics.
Casa Grande Fire Department fire marshal Frank Ricci told The Daily Wire on Wednesday that the incident continues to be under investigation “and is considered suspicious in nature.”
Ricci shared that he requested the assistance of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) as soon as he was notified that there was a fire at the church — particularly due to the fact that the parish is “a place of worship and has significant meaning to my community.”
The ATF confirmed to The Daily Wire that it is assisting the Casa Grande Fire Department in their investigation.
Asked if there was any reason to believe the incident was tied to Proposition 139, Ricci responded: “Not at this time. We are still awaiting evaluation of a lot of evidence that was sent to the crime lab.”
“At this time we are not ruling anything out,” he added. “I took the approach from the begining of this investigation that I was classifying this as a crime until proven otherwise by the data and science, just because it was a place of worship. Much like the police agencies do when there is a suicide. They classify it as a homicide until proven otherwise. ”
In an Oct. 18 press statement, Ricci also shared that the “fire caused extensive damage to the interior of the church, particularly affecting the southwest side of the building. Significant fire damage also occurred in the eastern portion of the church, and the main worship area was impacted by heavy smoke and some fire.”
“Fortunately, there were no injuries, as the building was unoccupied at the time of the incident,” he said.
The national Catholic organization, CatholicVote, has tracked attacks on Catholic Churches and pregnancy centers for a number of years. And in a Wednesday statement to The Daily Wire, the organization’s director of the Catholic Accountability Project, Tommy Valentine, urged investigators to quickly get to the bottom of the matter.
“CatholicVote has warned for months that there is a strong correlation between pro-abortion violence — including firebombings, arson, threats and more — and states where abortion is on the ballot,” Valentine said.
“We hope and pray that the fire at St. Anthony of Padua’s is unrelated to political violence, however, Catholics have reason to be suspicious as it comes on the heels of over 400 attacks on Catholic Churches throughout the past few years,” he added. “We encourage investigators to quickly get to the bottom of this incident and for our local leaders to step up protections for Catholics and people of faith.”
