Europe, US: destruction of Christian symbols, disruption of Mass
December 30, 2014
Recent days have witnessed the destruction of Christian symbols in Europe and the United States and the disruption of a Mass.
On Christmas Day, a vandal entered a parish in Douai, France, and decapitated the heads of eight statues in the Nativity scene. La Voix du Nord reported that the week before, vandals had sprayed swastikas on the church, along with the word “pedophile.”
In response, three churches in the city of 40,000 will now be closed except during Mass.
In Bailleul, a nearby town of 14,000, the image of the child Jesus was taken from the crèche in the parish church.
Five protestors identified as Muslims, four of them children, disrupted a Christmas Eve Mass in Mönchengladbach, a city of 250,000 in western Germany. They entered the church shouting obscenities at Christians, the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians reported.
In Gross-Enzersdorf, a village of 9,000 in eastern Austria, an Egyptian Muslim immigrant sawed down a crucifix that had been a place of pilgrimage for six decades.
In Haverhill, Massachusetts, the image of the Child Jesus was taken from an outdoor crèche at a Catholic parish and replaced with a pig’s head.
In the weeks before Christmas, Nativity scenes were also vandalized in El Cerrito, California, and Berwyn, Illinois. In the latter incident, young people, one of whom shouted, “Long live Satan,” beheaded statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph in a convent garden.
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Further information:
- Douai : des statues décapitées provoquent la stupeur des fidèles de la paroisse (La Voix du Nord)
- Bailleul: on a volé le petit Jésus de l’église Saint-Vaast (La Voix du Nord)
- Rioting at Christmas Service at Catholic Church in Rheydt (Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians)
- Wayside Cross Motersawed by Muslim (Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians)
- Haverhill mayor: Pig head placement a hate crime (Boston Herald)
- Community Upended After Vandals Deface Beloved El Cerrito Nativity Scene (ABC 7)
- Vandals Decapitate Statues, Egg Nativity Scene At Berwyn Church (CBS Chicago)
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Posted by: -
Dec. 30, 2014 9:55 PM ET USA
These people are to be pitied, not hated but it makes me wonder how they got that way. it's getting harder to make a visit to one's church as many are closed and/or locked up because of vandalism in many places. They're not going to change our minds; Jesus is the reason for the season.
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Posted by: hartwood01 -
Dec. 30, 2014 9:31 PM ET USA
Insane world,Europe is protesting "Islamation" and Muslims are committing atrocious bigoted acts in Germany and Austria toward Catholics.
