Catholic Cop: How to Defend Your Church

Timely advice from a twenty-year veteran of policing in a large urban centre. The attacks on our Churches will undoubtedly continue.

From One Peter Five

By John Michael Buckley

Now more than ever, I believe it to be of absolute necessity for churches to be prepared for the probable disruptions of Holy Mass, along with the security of our priests and families.

With this in mind, I submit the following. I have worked as a police officer in a large northeastern city for over 20 years. In that time, I have dealt with Leftists and their tactics at more events than I care to remember. This is what I propose:

1. Know the enemy.  As a general rule, if the enemies of God decide to engage in these activities, they themselves plan beforehand, with the following goals: a.) Disruption and intimidation upon the target. Their goal is partially psychological warfare and they want to make sure they leave a lasting impression; and b.) As much social media exposure as possible. They will record what they are doing, looking for actions taken by their targets that they can post and use as sympathy for their cause or to make their targets look bad. If they decide to engage a target, they will have active and inactive participants, who will act on either plans beforehand or from the leader at the event. Some will be loud and aggressive while others will stay silent, either filming, observing or waiting to engage themselves. In a church or building setting, they will not completely let themselves all be inside. There would be a lookout or others with cameras on the outside waiting for a commotion to record, or to assist if their people are being confronted by men who know how to handle themselves physically.

2. Engage the enemy immediately. Based on my interactions, they rely on the element of surprise and fear by those not expecting them. There should be men who tactically and tactfully go right up to them and take it outside; verbally if possible. The quieter this can be done the better. Quiet, stoic, authoritative (passive authority) engagement works best. Mind you, most of these types have never been in a fair fight in their lives and are generally “girly men.”

3. Handle the female Marxists properly. As for the women however, as I have observed and as the great Archbishop Fulton Sheen opined, there is nothing as vile as a Leftist, Communist woman. They are generally the loudest, most true believing soldiers to the cause. Due to this, they will become belligerent upon engagement and will be loud, crude and combative. Keep in mind that they will try to provoke a heavy handed response which will be filmed, so getting them out the door should be done strongly and firmly, but with as little physical force as is necessary due to optics.

In any case, the goal of engagement should be to move the Leftists out of the church with all lawful means and with a due proportion of force. Contact your local law enforcement to see what local laws apply in your case. Sometimes state laws and local ordinances prohibit the disruption of religious services, making your actions as security align with the intent of the law.

4. Shut the doors. Once outside, the doors should be shut and several men stationed outside to make sure they don’t get in. At this, they will begin to verbally abuse those men with cameras in their faces, perhaps even having others with signs, placards out there as well. One thing that drives them crazy is when you take out your phone yourself and record them yourselves. Their goal is to always be on the offense, (classic Alinskyite tactics) so this takes the offense out of it for them by trying to intimidate by recording.

5. Stay on guard. Keep in mind that if it does happen that they are pushed outside the door, that they could have more plants inside the church, waiting to disrupt again so don’t put all our eggs in one basket with all the men outside.

6. Contact the local police department to have a car posted outside. Bad guys always want the easiest targets, so a physical deterrent can work and prevent the whole disruption from happening at all. If someone has a personal contact in the local department even better, as there is no substitute for that personal touch.

In order to put these things into practice, you need to assemble a security team at your parish. Gather all the fighting men, especially law enforcement, and make sure they are trained on these and other tactics of defense. Create a schedule so that every Mass is covered. Those who are not on duty at a given Mass can still be ready and “on call” to back up their brethren if they need to engage a disruption.

Lastly, I would say that they are looking for the most high profile, high exposure locations like the diocesan cathedral, city churches, to try and intimidate the most people, as well as get the most possible exposure through their videos and news coverage that would ensue as a result. This being said however, I received word today from a coworker that there was a massive disruption at his Novus Ordo church during Holy Mass. A very loud and aggressive man, again during Holy Mass, starting screaming and yelling, then processed to punch a parishioner. He then produced a knife. Luckily, the local police responded very quickly and engaged him. Their tasers were ineffective and it ended up taking seven (yes seven) officers to subdue him.

This is happening, my fellow Catholic brethren, and if it takes seven police officers who are trained in subduing bad guys, then it says to me that not being prepared would be dereliction of one’s Christian duty at this point.

As I have told many over the years, having spent lots of time around murderers, rapists, drug dealers and the like, I have never felt more in the presence of evil than around the godless Leftists, who rage against Our Lord and His Holy Bride, the Church. May we defend, first and foremost, our Blessed Lord in the Holy Eucharist, our holy priests, families, fellow parishioners and church buildings by using the cardinal virtues of prudence, fortitude and exacting justice against the forces of hell; the times demand it.

St. Micheal the Archangel, Defend is in Battle!

Editor’s note: we welcome all submissions from Catholic fighting men on specific tactics and tips for all things Catholic life in a post-Roe world. What are you doing in your parish that has worked? Send us a submission.