April 24, 2024 at 11:39 a.m.
SERIOUS ON SECURITY
An assault on a Texas priest — along with recent incidents at Catholic churches in the U.S., including at St. Mary’s in Hudson, and Canada — highlights the need for parishes to implement more robust security measures, experts told OSV News.
On April 10, Father Tony Neusch, rector of St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral in Amarillo, Texas, was pepper-sprayed while hearing confessions.
In a Facebook post that same day, Father Neusch wrote that “someone dealing with mental health issues” had attacked him. He said he did “not require medical attention,” adding that police had been notified. No arrests have yet been made in the case.
Father Neusch, who declined to comment to OSV News, said in his post that the parish would “suspend Confessions, except by appointment, until security cameras can be installed in the Chapel.
“I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but the safety of our confessors and those waiting to receive the Sacrament needs to be preserved,” he wrote.
Locally, on Sunday, April 14, Father Anthony M. Barratt confirmed to The Evangelist that as he was celebrating Mass, a man wearing a mask and dressed in black entered St. Mary’s Church, yelled “all hail” and rushed the altar with a glass bottle over his head before being stopped and detained by ushers until the police arrived. The man, named Cameron Jamieson according to a Hudson Police press release, later was charged with making a terroristic threat.
In video message to the faithful after the incident on the parish’s website (holytrinityhudson.org), Father Barratt said of the incident, which took place at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer: “It was alarming for those present and, sadly I’m sure as you also know, various incidents like this do occur from time to time in all sorts of places, including churches. It’s important to note that we do have a protocol in place for such events and emergencies, and our ushers have had training in what to do as was indeed evident in how they acted on Sunday.
“It’s also good to note that a number of our ushers are either active or retired law enforcement officers and some ushers and other volunteers also have professional medical background for medical emergencies that can take place during Mass. … Many thanks to those who helped deal with the incident on Sunday in a calm, sensitive, caring way.”
Other security incidents in recent weeks at Catholic churches and shrines throughout the U.S. and Canada include:
• The Easter Vigil Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York was disrupted by some 10 protesters, who took up positions in at least two areas of the cathedral to decry Israel’s retaliatory attacks on Hamas in Gaza. Three protestors were arrested and charged under New York state law with disrupting a religious service.
• Parishioners of St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Toronto had to evacuate the building toward the end of their 10 a.m. liturgy March 24, due to a bomb threat apparently made by a woman experiencing mental distress.
• Servite Father Leo Hambur narrowly escaped harm after an assailant vandalized The Grotto, the National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother in Portland, Oregon, Feb. 28 and broke into a clergy residence on the shrine’s grounds. The suspect was arrested and charged with multiple offenses, including three felonies.
Violence in houses of worship is far from unprecedented — Jesus spoke of Zechariah son of Barachiah being “murdered between the sanctuary and the altar” (Mt 23:35), and St. Thomas Becket and St. Wenceslaus were both killed on church property during the Middle Ages.
In recent years, the U.S. has witnessed gunmen carry out mass killings at the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue and the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.
In security industry parlance, churches and other religious structures are known as “soft targets” — public, civilian spaces that are easily accessible and typically have limited security measures. A growing recognition of that vulnerability has led to initiatives such as the Department of Homeland Security’s house of worship protection program and the annual Church Security Essentials Conference, which takes place April 25-26 in Austin, Texas.
In response to the incident at St. Mary’s, the Diocese of Albany said in an email to The Evangelist that it “is currently starting to reach out to local authorities in each of the 14 counties that we cover, to coordinate updated training for all our parishes. This would enhance previous training received over the years at both the parish and diocesan level.”
Preserving both pastoral welcome and commonsense security in places of prayer can be a delicate balance, said Craig Gundry of Critical Intervention Services, a Tampa, Florida-based security consulting firm with extensive experience in church security.
“Churches tend to be very open communities, and that’s desirable. That’s what we want to create,” Gundry told OSV News. “And that obviously presents some challenges from a security perspective.”
Gundry said that his firm has particularly focused on the details of “improving physical security for churches while maintaining an environment that is conducive to community and to spiritual celebration.”
In addition to developing emergency response policies and procedures, assembling a “church security team (is) very valuable,” Gundry said.
“They in essence serve as the guardians of the flock ... observing and monitoring for potential threats,” he said.
In fact, such teams were established in 16th-century Ireland under the Penal Laws to protect Catholic priests as they clandestinely celebrated Mass. The practice was continued in the U.S. by the Ancient Order of Hibernians and other Irish fraternal organizations as Irish Catholics suffered violence from Nativist factions.
The Catholic Community of St. Thomas More in Chapel Hill, N.C., launched its St. Michael the Defender Ministry in 2017, led by Jeff Malkovsky, a professional in the field of global complex risk and threat management.
Weekend Masses are staffed by an armed off-duty Chapel Hill police officer, and the team annually hosts a “Safety Sunday” that features evacuation drills. In addition, St. Michael ministry members partner with the parish’s mental health volunteers to spot and head off potential crises during worship.
Malkovsky — whose team was put to a real-life test when an August 2023 active shooting unfolded at the nearby University of North Carolina campus — told OSV News that security is a parish-wide project.
“The more people who are aware at all levels in any organization, any operation, the more you can begin to build safety nets around it ... (through) avoidance, mitigation and response,” said Malkovsky.
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