It takes a very special kind of stupid to vandalise a church, then post evidence of your crime on the internet.
But, hey, who ever said that religious folk were intelligent?
Three young Mormon missionaries carried out the attack at the Sangre de Cristo Catholic Church in San Luis, USA, in 2006, but their deed only came to light last week when church members found internet photos showing them vandalising the Shrine of the Mexican Martyrs and mocking the Roman Catholic faith.
A regional missionary official for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Robert Fotheringham, has acknowledged the men depicted in the photos were missionaries working in the San Luis Valley that year, and said the church would discipline the men. He would not, however, identify them.
The damaged bust seen in one of the photos is of Manuel Morales, who was the 28-year-old president of Mexico’s National League for the Defence of Religious Liberty when he was executed in 1926 for refusing to recognise laws he considered anti-religious. He was among more than two dozen Mexican saints canonised in 2000.
The broken-off head had gone unnoticed because it had been placed back on its base.
The Sangre de Cristo Parish Council, based near the New Mexico line in San Luis, voted on Sunday to ask for an investigation.
Said Alonzo Payne, a lawyer in San Luis who belongs to the parish:
The parish was a victim of a crime, and the council felt we should report it. The local sheriff said charges against the men could include desecration of a venerated object, criminal trespass, defacing property and bias-motivated crime.
Another photo posted on the Photobucket web site, showed a second missionary who appears to be preaching from the Book of Mormon inside the Chapel of All Saints.
A third photo shows one missionary pretending to sacrifice another on the altar at the Shrine of the Mexican Martyrs. All the pictures have now been removed from Photobucket.
The Rev Pat Valdez told parishioners:
What they did was extremely imprudent, extremely uncharitable and inflammatory. You have worked hard and this whole community has worked hard to build that shrine as an expression of our faith and an expression of our love of God.
Fotheringham, who is in charge of the LDS church’s missionary program in parts of four states, and whose region includes the San Luis Valley, said that the three in the pictures were church missionaries, who at the time were serving in the towns of Manassa and Sanford.
Fotheringham met with Valdez and other community members and presented them with a written apology from one of the missionaries, signed by an R Thompson.
I realize that my companions and I have made a mockery of that which is most sacred to many of the residents of San Luis and the rest of the world. I should have known better because I have seen many of the same types of blasphemies made against my own church and I have been appalled.
See a full report here.
5 Comments
LDS church or LSD church?
Notice how close the word “Mormon” is to “Moron”?
Interesting example of ‘inter faith dialogue’ - probably get a grant for it under the current UK government guidelines.
On the other hand, if anybody else but an ordained Christian priest did this in the UK a judge would serve them with an ASBO.
It’s interesting how many religious people claim atheists are immoral and hateful. Yet notice who engages in the bulk of hate crimes and vandalism against religious people and religious sites–other religious people!
I am a member of the LDS church and this is definitely appalling. Though there are some childish acts that these dumb kids are doing, please do not mistake them for representing my religion. We love all religions and respect them as well. I feel sorry for these missionaries in these photos as it shows how little they have been taught to respect other religions and cultures. I wish I could talk to these kids to teach them how to respect other faiths. Fuitaki
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