Parishioner Bob Martin told CNA the vandalism was “very sad.”
“It’s very typical of what’s happening in this world today-disrespect for Christians and the Catholic religion,” Martin said.
The vandalism of the statue comes a week after another Sacred Heart of Jesus statue in Waltham, Massachusetts – just over an hour away from Narragansett – was vandalised. The hands of both statues were attacked.
Other acts of vandalism have taken place at churches around the country in recent months.
In April, the face of a statue of Christ at Saint Mary’s Cathedral in the Fargo diocese was painted black. On April 21, a man used a sledgehammer to damage a mural of Our Lady Guadalupe at St. Elisabeth Catholic Church in Van Nuys, California. On March 13, the sidewalk outside Saint Joseph’s Parish on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. was vandalized with what appeared to be satanic graffiti.
In early February three statues of angels at St. Pius X Church in El Paso, Texas, were toppled over and broken.
In early January, a statue of St. Therese of Lisieux was defaced with an upside-down cross, the word “satan,” and a pentagram, at St. Theresa of the Child Jesus parish in Abbeville, Louisiana.
Catholic Churches and statues throughout the United States were targeted for arson or vandalism throughout 2020 as well. Sometimes, churches were damaged amid mass riots and protests, such as in Kenosha, Wisconsin, while other churches appeared to be the targets of random acts of vandalism.
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