Sacred Places

Four people attacked my church at home yesterday. They came in during Mass, stormed up to the front of the room, yelled at my pastor, and knocked over the altar, shattering it. The altar is one of the only things we have left from our old church (the new space was built just a few years ago). I know that there are a lot of people in Alabama who don’t like Catholics because of what they think we believe, but I never thought that they’d attack us. It makes me feel very vulnerable.

Update: As has been pointed out by my mother and my sister, the perpetrators had no ties to the area, having recently moved to Alabama from the Northeast. That makes me feel… better, I suppose. The attack itself is no less horrible, but it no longer feels like we’ve been attacked by someone we know.

Update: The wire news story about the incident has been picked up by newspapers all over the country, and even by The Guardian in the UK.

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You’re currently reading “Sacred Places,” an entry on Margaret Maloney

Published:: 10.03.05 / 11am

Category:: rants

Phyllis 10.03.05 / 10pm

I think it’s worth noting that the two people who appear to have caused most of the damage were not originally from Alabama, but moved to Hartselle from Connecticut and New Hampshire. So I don’t think it’s fair to extrapolate from this case that “a lot of people in Alabama . . . don’t like Catholics.” It’s worth noting that Decatur’s chief of police and mayor are both Catholic, so it seems that, on the contrary, there is a high degree of acceptance and that this is an exception to a generally tolerant atmosphere.

Margaret 10.03.05 / 11pm

Yes, I noticed that later, and was going to make an emendation. Still, there are certainly Alabamians who don’t like Catholics—when Ms. Morrison started teaching at SBP, she was warned about our “strange rituals” and “worshipping statues.” This is definitely an exception—it just happens to be an exception that hits exceptionally close to home.

Margaret Maloney

Sacred Places

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