The following comes from a November 14 Mojave Desert News article by Joyce Grant:
CALIFORNIA CITY – Late last week, a parishioner had arrived early Wednesday morning at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church to discover the five foot, solid alabaster stone statue of Our Lady of Lourdes toppled from its stone pedestal and smashed into large chunks and a multitude of fragments, lying in the gravel of the shrine located in front of the church along California City Boulevard.
Church staff indicated that the vandalism occurred sometime after a communion service, held the evening of November 3, and before daybreak on November 4, 2015.
[Editor’s note] These attacks are much more frequent than you might think:
Shock after Junipero Serra statue vandalized days after sainthood declared
September 28, 2015 – Vandals targeted headstones of people of European descent.
Stolen consecrated hosts returned to church
August 26, 2015 – Tabernacle was taken from East Bay church but thief may have had a change of heart.
July 1, 2015 – Blessed Virgin beheaded, Christ defaced.
They’ve been busy
Jun 07, 2012 – Cemetery break-ins in Martinez on the rise.
The true evil
May 10, 2012 – Santa Cruz church defaced, Serra baptismal font broken.
What the vandals vandalized
Apr 06, 2012 – San Francisco archdiocese responds to Occupy movement’s brief takeover of archdiocesan buildings
Unknown substance
Mar 27, 2012 – Vandals deface statue in front of chapel dedicated to celebrating traditional Latin Mass.
Ash Wednesday desecration
Feb 27, 2012 – Vandals spray ‘satanic symbols,’ deface statues at Union City parish.
$5000 in damages for $39 worth of copper
Aug 31, 2011 – Antioch parish hit by thieves again, latest in statewide crime wave against Catholic institutions.
A rude and crude message
Apr 26, 2011 – Another Catholic church victimized by crime, vandals spray paint graffiti on walls of St. Barbara Parish at Mission Santa Barbara.
Very definitely a deliberate act
Apr 19, 2011 – Suspicious fire destroys Hacienda Heights church, latest in series of crimes against Catholic parishes in CA.
Same hate, different church
Jan 17, 2011 – Vandals spray-paint “Kill the Cathlics” at second parish, latest in series of crimes against Catholic churches in California.
Easy target
Jan 10, 2011 – Glendale parish repeated victim of ‘poor box’ thief; latest in series of crimes against Catholic churches.
Anti-Catholic crime wave
Nov 18, 2010 – Church in Woodland targeted again by thieves, while parishes elsewhere in California continue to be victims of vandalism and theft.
Parish hit again
Oct 20, 2010 – In latest in series of crimes against Catholic churches across CA, Modesto parish suffers another break-in.
They came for our ladies
Sep 07, 2010 – Modesto church latest victim of sacrilege, vandalism.
Video security systems need to be mandatory as well and priests and staff carrying guns. Enough if this.
Just what we need, many more gun barring idiots (priests and staff included). God help us all.
Why is this latest outrage not in the news? If these attacks took place against a synagogue or a mosque, it would be sensationalized nationally. Why do Catholics and other Christians seem to be of less concern to our fellow citizens? Most of the people who built our country were Christians, and countless millions were and are Catholics. Does anyone have any thoughts on how we can gain support rallying against these attacks as hate crimes? This is actually physically painful to me to read about again and again, but only on Catholic media.
Yes, Mary L., it would be national news if a mosque were vandalized, especially at this time.
However as I’ve mentioned before, when you go to Mass in the city of Genk in Belgium, the Catholic Church there has had to have a locked cyclone fence placed permanently around it with barbed wire on top, to keep the church walls from being vandalized with Koran inspired graffiti. It is because there is a large religion-of-peace presence now in that city. It is increasingly common around churches in France and Belgium now.