CatholicVote recently sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate incidents of vandalism in Catholic churches.

According to WTOP News, on Jan. 25 the grotto of Nativity Catholic Church in Fairfax County, Virginia was vandalized. The vandal destroyed several statues, including one of the Virgin Mary.

"The grotto is a place of prayer, peace, and healing," the church said. "We pray for the person or persons who desecrated this sacred space and for peace in our world and the end of violence."

On Jan. 14, St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in Fresno, Calif., was broken into and vandalized, FOX 26 News reports. The suspect, was caught on video but has not been apprehended, stole money from the church and vandalized a 100-year-old Tabernacle, causing about $35,000 worth of damage .

In December, CatholicVote President Brian Burch, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, citing recent instances of vandalism committed against Catholic churches in California, New York, Colorado and Washington, D.C. Burch stated in the letter that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has confirmed at least 114 instances of arson, statues being destroyed and other acts of vandalism committed in 29 states since May 2020. 

Burch called on Garland and the Department of Justice to investigate those acts of vandalism.

CatholicVote Political Director Josh Mercer has condemned President Biden for what he calls a lack of action.

"President Biden regularly crosses himself, shows off his rosary, and has his staffers brag for him about what a ‘devout Catholic’ he is," Mercer said. "But Catholic voters are smarter than that. Actions speak louder than words. Biden and his administration have done nothing as the Catholic community he claims to belong to faces more and more acts of destructive hate. Even the Catholic bishops can’t get a response out of him. Catholics won’t forget that at the ballot box."

Religion News reports that according to the FBI, more than 1,200 of the hate crimes committed in 2020 were motivated by religious bias, and half of those were anti-Semitic. 

The number of specifically anti-Catholic hate crimes has increased in recent years, from 51 in 2018 to 64 in 2019 and 73 in 2020.