He noted that the increase coincided with the start of the pandemic, noting the economic hardship, political divisions and social unrest that have rocked the United States ever since.
The Archbishop of Denver, Samuel Aquila, has framed the growing rate of vandalism as part of a “cultural crisis” in America.
“You would probably have to go back to the early 20th or late 19th century, when an influx of Catholic immigrants challenged a predominantly Protestant culture, to find so much public competition for the Catholic Church,” he wrote in an article.
Others have noted that it is not just the Catholic community that has grown – African American churches, Mormon churches, temples, synagogues and mosques have been targeted to varying degrees.
FBI data released late last year found that hate crimes, which include religiously motivated attacks, have become more common in the past two years.
Around the same time, a report by the American Jewish Commission found that nearly 40 percent of American Jews had changed their behavior in the past year for fear of anti-Semitism.
Mr Balserak emphasized that the USCCB’s record was “obscure” compared to attacks on Jewish communities in the United States, but that “the apparent increase in incidents” has become a source of “concern” for the country’s Catholic bishops.
In response to the attacks, the USCCB pressured Congress to increase security funding for houses of worship, with some churches taking the unusual step of hiring private security teams for the first time.
But Mr Balserak said tackling the crisis would require more transformational change.
“What I think is probably the final solution to the problem is a return to the appreciation of the value of faith in public life. “And the way to get there is not as simple as writing a letter in support of a bill.”
“I think the duty for [Catholics] it is to show through the way we act, and the way we speak, that we are not enemies – and that is a much bigger hill to climb. “
