Three attacks on the Church from the hemisphere’s Marxist Axis in two days makes me think there may be a coordinated effort by Chavez-Castro & Friends to confront the Church. Given the weak state of the Church in most of the world, it’s hard to grasp why dictators should see it as such a threat but perhaps this is an region where the Church remains a robust force. It certainly was in Poland back in the 1980s. There may be a brewing showdown between the Church and communism, something not seen since Pope John Paul II verbally mauled Daniel Ortega and all his Liberation Theology acolytes in the 1980s. If so, Chavez & Castro may be fearful of mass movements around the Church. There already have been confrontations brewing, as Jim Hoft at GatewayPundit notes. Given the able leadership of the Church in Colombia and Cuba, and apparently Venezuela, one might also speculate that this is why a German pope was chosen over a Latino pope – the latter cardinals simply couldn’t be spared, given the nature of their growing enemy. Let’s see how this develops. Here is a rundown of events:

One week after Pope Benedict wrote a letter to Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, asking him to allow the Church full freedom of action, and got Chavez’s assurance that all was well, Chavista goons commandeered a church in a town in Venezuela ‘in the name of the people.’ Alek Boyd has the story here.

Meanwhile, Colombia’s Marxist FARC guerrillas reversed their concilatory course and declared war on all Church clergy, vowing to kill all priests as military targets. We noted that story at Publius here.

Now, Fidel Castro in Cuba has cracked down on Church activities by denying permits for religious functions, a move to repress the religious expression. So much for the much-vaunted entente with the Vatican. Obviously, it’s open season on the Church now as the eyes of the world shift to Hurricane Katrina. The story is here.

What’s going on? It’s a crackdown of some kind. The FARC, Chavez and Castro are all allied to each other. What a coincidence that all of these repressive measures come at once.