Could this most troubling of summers for the Catholic Church across Canada spark its resurgence as a vital participant in the country’s public life? Call me a sun-addled optimist, but I carry a conviction it can so long as we avoid thinking of a phoenix rising from ashes and instead heed the Gospel call to commit ourselves to the long, hard, patient work of building Christ’s Church.

First it was grief, then it was anger, then it was destruction.

While the rash of arsons and acts of vandalism perpetrated on churches across Canada has lightened considerably compared to the volume of incidents that occurred between late June and mid-July, it’s not gone away.

VANCOUVER -- As Vancouver Police investigate a “dramatic” increase in mischief and vandalism at churches and church properties, they’re concerned an escalation in violence could lead to more serious damage or injury.

VANCOUVER — The largest annual event in the Archdiocese of Vancouver, which draws thousands of Catholics to a historic site in Mission, has been cancelled for the second year in a row.

As the statues fall across the nation, there is little positive sculptor Timothy Schmalz can glean from the anger and destruction.

With 20 churches across Canada — mostly Catholic — torched by mid-July in the fallout of the discovery of unmarked graves at former residential schools, the silence from political leaders has been deafening, says Deacon Andrew Bennett.

The Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL) has condemned the rash of church fires and vandalism that has taken place across Canada, particularly in the west, since the discovery of graves at former residential schools.

MAPLE RIDGE, B.C. -- A billboard with an image of a young mother holding a child on the property of St. Luke’s Parish has been vandalized again.

TOLEDO, Ohio -- The suspect sought in connection with vandalism and a small fire at Toledo's cathedral early Jan. 18 and a 24-year-old police officer both died in a hail of gunfire later that same day.

SANTIAGO, Chile -- Demonstrators burned two Catholic churches in Chile, where gatherings to mark the one-year anniversary of mass protests against inequality descended into chaos.

Parishioners of the Cathedral of St. Catharines of Alexandria were given a punch to the gut during morning Mass Sept. 8. 

Washington, D.C. Newsroom (CNA) -- The tabernacle that was stolen earlier this week from the St. Catherine of Alexandria Cathedral in St. Catharines, Ontario was recovered on Wednesday, September 9.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom (CNA) -- The Bishop of St. Catharines, Ontario is pleading for thieves to return the consecrated Host after the tabernacle was stolen from the St. Catherine of Alexandria Cathedral on Tuesday.

Toronto police have released an image of a man sought for decapitating a statue of the Virgin Mary outside a church in the city’s west end.