In the eastern German city of Leipzig, a place that is well known for being a left-wing extremist stronghold, the Evangelical-Lutheran Emmaus Church on Tuesday was allegedly nearly burned to the ground after a group of unknown individuals desecrated the inside of the building before setting it alight.
Perpetrators on Tuesday night broke into the church, which is situated in the city’s Sellerhausen district, smashed its windows, vandalized and desecrated much of the sanctuary’s interior, started a fire, and looted several liturgical objects, the Berlin-based newspaper Junge Freiheit reports.
According to the newspaper, which references a police report from the authorities in the state of Saxony, the anti-Christian vandals also seriously damaged the organ room, broke open cupboards and scattered contents on the floor, and swept objects off of the alter. The altar’s copper cross and candlesticks were stolen, while a heavy copper baptismal font was left nearby the location where the burglars exited, as they seemingly were unable to fit it through the broken window they used to enter the building.
A separate report suggests that perpetrators also smeared feces throughout the church’s interior.
The anti-Christian attack comes two years after the Evangelical St. Luke’s Church in Leipzig was attacked by alleged left-wing extremists, who poured paint on and launched projectiles at the church’s exterior. Following the incident, a letter written by an anonymous author who took responsibility for the attack, appeared on the extreme-Left internet portal Indymedia with the title: “Assembly for Moria: Smash White Christian Europe.”
The attack also comes amid an ever-increasing groundswell of anti-Christian sentiment across Western Europe. Although the phenomenon is widespread, it is particularly severe in France, where in 2021 more than 800 anti-Christian incidents were recorded according to a report from the Catholic News Agency.
