Pastor of Church Vandalized With Pro-Abortion Slogans Prays for Vandal to Accept Jesus
In response to the discovery of explicit pro-abortion graffiti on the doors of a Catholic church in Portland, Oregon on Sunday morning, the church’s pastor prayed for the vandal at Mass and expressed hope during the homily that the vandal would one day become an usher.
Just before Sunday Mass on April 28, explicit pro-abortion graffiti was found sprayed on the sidewalk by St. Patrick’s Church and on the church’s wooden front doors.
Fr. Timothy Furlow, who has been the pastor at St. Patrick’s Church since 2018, asked those at Mass that day to pray for the vandal instead of wrathfully seek justice or harbor hatred.
“You probably saw the graffiti on the way in,” Fr. Furlow began in his homily. “Somebody said, ‘Oh we gotta cover this up.’ I’m like, ‘Nope, I want them to see that.’ And the reason is because it fits kind of perfectly with what the core message of the Gospel is.”
The Gospel for April 28 was John 15:1-8, in which Jesus tells His disciples, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.”
Fr. Furlow said, “The core message here is pretty simple: we can’t do anything good apart from God.”
He emphasized the importance of grace, and not depending on oneself to get to Heaven. He said this would be the heresy of Pelagianism, which denies the reality of original sin and the need for grace.
By relying on God and His grace, one can grow in love and relationship with Him. Dependence on oneself is a worldly tendency, Fr. Furlow said, but dependence on God’s grace is supernatural.
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Further, Jesus calls Catholics to not live by the world’s standards, but by His, which fundamentally changes how persons interact with those who wrong them, Fr. Furlow said.
Addressing the vandalism, Fr. Furlow said that he knows who vandalized the church. He did not disclose the suspect’s identity.
He said that there is a temptation for him to respond by thinking vengefully, “I want to get that guy, I want him to get his comeuppance.”
“But the other part of me, the part of my heart that the Holy Spirit is working in, that I let Him work in, thinks: what I really want is for him to be an usher,” Fr. Furlow continued:
I want him to come to my door and say, “I have no idea what’s going on, I have never experienced anything like this in my life, but somehow, in the core of my being, I know that God is real and Jesus is God. Can you help me?”
Then the former vandal would come, Fr. Furlow said, “all the way through RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults), and the sacraments of initiation, into the door that he once cursed and spray-painted.”
After a brief pause, Fr. Furlow said, “This is how Jesus thinks. We’re tempted to receive a curse – and these are words of cursing, right? – and get mad, get wrathful, get vengeful, [saying,] ‘How do I get these people, how do I defend, how do I get justice?’ Through gritted teeth, we’re being tempted to do the works of God through the power of Satan.”
Recalling the Beatitudes from the fifth chapter of Matthew’s gospel, Fr. Furlow continued: “Anybody remember what [Jesus] says about people who curse you? ‘Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who persecute you.’”
This is what makes following Christ different from following the world and oneself, he said: “Christianity and Catholicism, it is utterly unlike anything else on the earth because it runs directly contrary to the logic of the world, the flesh and the Devil.”
“So here’s what we’re going to do today: I’m going to go sit down for a minute. When I sit down, I want us in the quiet of our hearts to pray for that guy,” he concluded:
This is putting our spiritual money where our mouth is.
I want you to sincerely pray for that guy and every single person like him in Portland, Oregon, that’s hurting with a broken heart and is turning to the darkness to try to fix it, rather than the Lord, who is Healing Himself.
Pray that he’d actually be able to receive that grace, and that one day he would be welcoming you at the door to Mass.
That’s being a Christian, that’s truly living our supernatural Catholic faith.
LifeNews Note: McKenna Snow writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
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