Sunday, October 6, 2024
27th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Recent Vandalism
Four events occurred in the last two months that I find very unsettling and disturbing. Each of these events took place at night. Here are the dates each incident was discovered in the light of day.
Wednesday, August 7th, the statue of St. Francis de Sales in front of the main door of the church was vandalized with yellow paint. In addition something was placed on the top of the concrete base and set afire.
Friday, August 16th, the window at the front porch of the rectory was set on fire.
Friday, September 20th the statue of St. Francis de Sales was vandalized again, this time with “chomo” written in black spray paint. Chomo is a slang term for child molester.
Saturday, September 28th, the statue was vandalized again with black spray paint.
Each of these incidents was promptly reported to the Van Nuys Division of the LAPD. Officers were here to take a report the first, third and fourth time. With the second incident the police officers called the arson investigators to examine the incident onsite. The third act of vandalism with “chomo” written on the statue is being treated by the LAPD as a hate crime.
Roberto, bless him, spent much time painstakingly cleaning the paint and burned residue off the marble of St. Francis de Sales. Once the statue was cleaned it suffered another paint assault.
To me our statues or any religious images are not merely marble or plaster or paint. They take our attention and direct our thoughts to the holy person they represent. In our Catholic lives defacing a statue or religious image is an assault on that holy person, an act of desecration. In addition, St. Francis de Sales is the patron saint of our parish and represents our parish. An assault on St. Francis de Sales Church is an attack on you, my parish family. An attack on our parish raises me to come to its defense.
I am in the process of having additional security cameras installed. As any number of business owners will agree, security cameras do not prevent vandalism. They may help deter vandalism and are the best we can do in hopes of identifying the assailant/s.
The burning of the rectory window frightens me. The fire burned through from the outside bottom right corner to the inside corner scorching the venetian blinds on the inside. The fire seemingly burned itself out before doing any further damage. The rectory could have easily caught fire. I attribute this deliverance from a house fire to the care of the all-holy Mother of God and my guardian angel.
I invite you to join with me in praying for justice and end to these assaults on our church property.
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You are welcome to watch our 10:00 am Sunday morning Mass on YouTube either live or later Sunday afternoon or evening.
