A Virginia Catholic bishop says the desecration of the main altar in St. Peter’s Basilica on Friday points to a larger worldwide trend of attacks against Catholics.
“What took place at Saint Peter’s Basilica is unfortunately the latest in an increasing global trend of attacks upon the Catholic Church, including her priests and faithful,” Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, told Fox News Digital.
On Friday, a man jumped on the main altar at St. Peter’s Basilica and knocked over a 19th-century candelabra.
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Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Houston vandalized with pro-choice message last summer. (Fox 26 Houston)
On X, videos of the incident show the individual throwing what appears to be candlesticks to the ground and ripping off the altar cloth before throwing it to the ground.
According to Italian news service ANSA, the cost of the six candelabras the individual threw to the ground is estimated to be €30,000 or $31,000.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Vatican Press Office, and did not immediately receive a response, but the Vatican Press Office did tell ANSA that “This is an episode of a person with serious mental disabilities, who was taken into custody by the Vatican Gendarmerie and handed over to the Italian authorities.”
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Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington posing for a picture with Bridget. (Diocese of Arlington)
Burbidge, who was installed in 2016, told Fox News Digital that “Attacks on the Church are always troubling, but Sacred Scripture reminds us that Jesus Christ and his followers will always be signs of contradiction who will be opposed in this world.”
He added that “We all must pray for the man who committed violence within Saint Peter’s Basilica and that God may pour out his grace on any whose hearts are hurt or who may be tempted to acts of destruction.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, CatholicVote said the attack was spiritually and politically motivated.
“While the motive of the man who vandalized the altar at St. Peter’s is not immediately clear, the epidemic we’re seeing is not attributable simply to drugs or mental illness. There are clear spiritual and political motivations behind the disturbing surge,” Tommy Valentine, director of the Catholic Accountability Project at CatholicVote, said.
Valentine added that the attacks on Catholic churches in the U.S. are “Undeniably driven primarily by pro-abortion domestic extremists and other anti-Catholic factions.”
“In Canada, dozens of churches have been burned to the ground since the ‘mass graves’ hoax, which appears to be complete fiction since no graves have ever been found. In France, there seems to be a mix of radical secularism and Islamic extremism driving the problem. In India, attacks on churches and Catholics themselves are now common. In Nigeria, Catholics are regularly kidnapped or martyred. These are just some examples from around the world,” he added.
According to a report from the United States Conference for Catholic Bishops, there have been at least 366 attacks on Catholic Churches in the United States across 43 states and the District of Columbia since May 2020.
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These attacks include “arson, statues beheaded, limbs cut, smashed, and painted, gravestones defaced with swastikas and anti-Catholic language and American flags next to them burned, and other destruction and vandalism,” according to the USCCB.
Valentine, the director of the Catholic Accountability Project at CatholicVote, told Fox News Digital that CatholicVote is also tracking attacks on Catholic churches, and that they have documented 484 attacks since May 2020.
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So far in 2025, CatholicVote has documented six attacks on Catholic churches.
“Public officials in every country have a duty to defend religious freedom,” Valentine said. “Anti-Catholic rhetoric, which is now frequent across the Western world, is clearly leading to violence. We are hopeful that the new Trump administration will set a new standard for the world by protecting Catholic churches as equally as they do other places of worship,” Valentine added.
