Washington D.C., Jan 22, 2019 / 03:58 pm (CNA).- While chanting and playing ceremonial drums, a group of Native American rights activists reportedly led by Nathan Phillips attempted Jan. 19 to enter Washington, D.C.’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception during a Saturday evening Mass.
The group of 20 demonstrators was stopped by shrine security as it tried to enter the church during its 5:15 pm Vigil Mass, according to a shrine security guard on duty during the Mass.
“It was really upsetting,” the guard told CNA.
“There were about twenty people trying to get in, we had to lock the doors and everything.”
The guard said the incident was a disappointment during a busy and joyful weekend for the shrine.
“We had hundreds and hundreds of people from all over the country come here to celebrate life, to celebrate each other together. That a protest tried to come inside during Mass was really the worst.”
The guard told CNA the situation was “tense.”
“I’m just really grateful that nothing too bad happened, they were really angry.”
A source close to the shrine’s leadership corroborated the security guard’s account, telling CNA that during the Mass, Phillips and the group tried to enter the church while playing drums and chanting, and were prohibited from entering the building by security personnel, who locked the main basilica doors with the congregation still inside.
The shrine’s spokeswoman would not confirm or deny that the group attempted to enter the Mass. She told CNA that “a group did assemble on Saturday evening outside the the shrine” and that they “left without incident.”
Philips was the subject of national media attention on Saturday, after video went viral on social media depicting parts of a Jan. 18 incident involving him and several teenagers, some of whom were students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky. The incident has become the subject of intense national debate, and Phillips has been accused by some of instigating an encounter with the students, and subsequently altering his initial account of events.
Covington Catholic High School was closed Jan. 22, following threats against students and staff in the wake of media coverage of Friday’s incident.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that about 60 people gathered outside the shrine in support of Phillips on Saturday night, though it did not mention reports that Phillips and some supporters attempted to disrupt the evening Mass.
Video footage showed one supporter saying that the group had gathered at the shrine to listen to Phillips, and to hold the Catholic Church “accountable” for the alleged actions of the Covington Catholic students and for the “colonial violence that the Catholic Church reproduces every day.”
A photograph attached to the post shows Phillips addressing the group outside the shrine.
The security guard told CNA that the incident was especially distressing given that Mass was underway.
“It’s a house of worship, a place of prayer where people come to celebrate. All this anger is so against what we are all about here.”
He told CNA that he’d never witnessed anything like it during his whole time of employment at the basilica.
“I don’t know the details of what happened on Friday [after the March for Life], I wish I did. All I know is it’s a shame, and it’s got nothing to do with why people were here.”
“And this all happened on our biggest event of the year. I hope we never see it again.”
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Mr. Phillips is very quick to demand that others respect him, but he shows no respect for others; just rudeness and bullying.
It is shameful behavior, and that such a man is allowed to torment those poor kids who did *NOTHING* wrong and give maudlin interviews to oh-so-sympathetic reporters is disgraceful. I do not hesitate to use the word “malevolent” about him.
These Native Americans are protesting something, what is it? I believe their protest is against White Nationalism Trump style. There are many who want to believe this is a white Nation. It is not! We are a Nation made of of immigrants, many different colors of skin. When the Natives shouted “You stole our land” why not listen to what they have to say? We cannot continue our denial of what we done to them. On another site I was blacklisted for upholding the perennial teachings of the Church. The truth caused me to be blacklisted. Will the Register do the same?
I think that could go back to ancient times to find something to be offended by, or to find an injustice against ourselves, perceived or otherwise. But to go back to Christopher Columbus and claim that is relevant to a person living today is a bit of a stretch.
To what Register are you referring?
Judging by the man who accompanied Mr. Phillips, they were protesting the presence of those of European ethnicity in the United States.
I do not understand how you can conclude credibly that wanting secure borders and not wanting illegal aliens to, among other things, drive up the unemployment and drive down the salaries of lower-income Americans, not a few of whom do not have “white skin,” constitutes “White Nationalism.”
“When the Natives shouted “You stole our land” why not listen to what they have to say? We cannot continue our denial of what we done to them. ”
In this particular instance, I’m not going to listen to anybody who bullies teenagers and lies about it.
And if I did listen to them, what do you propose – that all immigrants and those descended from immigrants leave the country? Then, to take one example, we should send all the people with Anglo-Saxon blood out of Britain and leave it to the Celts. Oh, but wait, the Celts drove out the Picts, didn’t they? And what about the Danes?
And back to the United States, to whom would we give “their” land? Indians were not one monolithic group. Many tribes waged bloody warfare over lands (in contradiction to the myth of the sweet, happy, unified people sitting around holding hands and singing Kumbaya). So – many of them were perfectly happy to *gain* land by conquest; they’re hardly in a position to claim that it’s unjust that they *lost* land the same way.
I’ve not received a degree in History or even close to it, but my understanding of the population of North and South America is that the one time “land bridge” with Asia permitted the development of land previously uninhabited. Everyone came from Adam and Eve…we are all immigrants beyond the Garden! If the argument is that the people from Europe who came by ship later, or up through Central America after landing by ship there, were unfair to those they met here, then maybe we can agree that searches for wealth and fame common to most is at the core of the dispute, not the color of skin. Immigrants from Europe who came legally and immigrants who are coming yet from Central and South America are equal and as deserving of a new home as all who came here before are, including those who identify as “natives”. All here are required by Natural law to try to make room for their “brothers”.
The truth or your opinion of the truth?
We are a Nation made of(sic) of immigrants, many different colors of skin.
Including every single tribe of American Indians whose ancestors migrated to North America across the Bering Strait land bridge from Siberia several millenia ago.
Your subjective opinion and defense of a character as flawed as Nathan Stanard/Phillips is extremely short on facts.
Because WE haven’t done anything to them. We are responsible for our own sins, not those of someone who lived centuries before we were born. Simple as that.
Why have I been blacklisted from this site also. On Lifesite News the moderator is a very sensitive man. I spoke in defense of the Church and it hurt his touchy feely sentiments. What hapenned to masculine Catholicism???
If you mean, “Why did my comment not post immediately,” it’s because *nobody’s* comments post immediately. See the yellow box under “Leave a Reply?” It says “All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. Just wait, and your post will show up, unless it breaks the rules the editors have set – “comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published.”
I’m not an editor, just someone who read the statement.
Incidentally, PaxTecum77, are we to conclude that you are also IesuEt Maria, since you both write the same way?
Being banned at LifeSite is a badge of honor. Wear it proudly. Long before the election of Jorge Bergoglio, I was pointing out the culture of intrinsically disordered sexual deviants masquerading as Priests and their goal of destroying the Church. I was banned without explanation. With the revelations unleashed by grand jury reports, Archbishop Vigano’s testimonies, Wuerl’s behavior in Pennsylvania and DC and his getting caught lying about his knowledge of McCarrick, the none too secret rumors about McCarrick being confirmed, the behavior of Cupich, Tobin, Dolan, McElroy, et al, the behavior of the Peronist Pontiff, the behavior of the St. Gallen Mafia, the curia, Kasper, Marx, Danneels, et al, I’ve been vindicated. I’m still banned though and I’m proud of the fact that people like that don’t want to read opinions like mine. That doesn’t stop them from attempting to solicit donations from me to keep them afloat.
Mr. Phillips should harken to the Latino world on non boring rhythms….
https://youtu.be/2Wv89NBLinE
Even at church its also dangerous nowadays
Native(sic) American activist Nathan Phillips has violent criminal record and escaped from jail as teenager