Guides who regularly take pilgrims and tourists to pray and to see the Basilica's priceless art and artifacts are resisting tightening security, saying suggestions of glass barriers risk compromising the sacred nature of the space.

It is a church, they point out.

In one recent incident a man described as "unstable" was reportedly arrested by Vatican police after tossing a candelabra off the main altar in St Peter's.

Two days later, a similar event took place.

British tour guide Agnes Crawford said she was standing near the entrance of the basilica when she heard banging from the main altar.

"This guy climbed onto the altar and started smashing the crucifix and the candle sticks," she said.

While many people immediately began running toward the scene, she advised her group to stay back until the situation was resolved.

"What struck me as quite bizarre was that quite a lot of people, before realizing what was happening, were rushing to take photographs.

"If I see a guy who's clearly losing his mind, the last thing I want to do is get closer," she said.

Crawford said he was shouting something "incomprehensible," but was otherwise calm and did not resist when security officials came to take him away.

"It's surprising that things like this don't happen more often, because there's something about big churches which does attract quite strange people."

Nonetheless, Crawford is not in favour of tougher restrictions.

"If you think in the grand scheme of things, these sorts of things happen very, very rarely," she said.

"I think that places being accessible is very good."

"If every time somebody tries to do something, you put up fences and walls and glass barriers, then everything becomes hermetically sealed, when the vast majority of people are perfectly reasonable," she said.

St. Peter's, which welcomes millions of visitors a year, "is primarily a church, it's not primarily a museum, and it would be rather sad if everything becomes sanitized,".

More vigilance is needed, not blockades or restrictions, she said.

Other regular Vatican guides are similarly concerned that sacred artifacts would be seen only behind a wall of glass.

This is the case with the Pieta, which has been glass-encased since an incident in 1972 when a deranged man attacked the sculpture with a hammer.

Source

• Crux Now

Image: Crux Now

Abusive messages against the Christian religion and Pakeha were spray-painted in green on the state highway side of the church, next to Campion College, on Wednesday night.

Parish priest Monsignor Frank Eggleton said bad timing made the graffiti worse.

"It was a big shock for me, but also all the children coming to school had to walk past it and it was very upsetting to us to see them even looking at it."

Insults targeting faith were especially horrifying at a time when New Zealand was grieving a tragedy triggered by anti-religious bigotry, he said.

On Thursday, Gisborne police said they are following lines of inquiry in relation to the vandalism.

In Thursday's Gisborne Herald, Campion College principal Paul McGuinness and Gisborne's Mayor Meng Foon expressed their disgust and alarm about the graffiti.

Mr McGuinness said it was very sad to see especially in light of the tragedy in Christchurch.

"At a time when New Zealanders are being asked to come together in solidarity and embrace our diversity as a country, the graffiti is a reminder that this may be a long path to travel for some in our community," he said.

"It is also very sad a church is the target for this vandalism when many of the church communities throughout New Zealand are active in trying to heal the harm caused by last week's tragedy."

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• gisborneherald.co.nz
• Image: newshub.co.nz

The Temuka Boxing Club and St Joseph's Church were broken into and vandalised on Sunday.

The church suffered more than $7000 worth of damage after two historical statues were destroyed. Continue reading

Father Craig Butler said while crime which targeted churches was rare, the impact was widely felt among parishioners.

In June, a thief made off with five microphones and other electronic equipment, valued at $2382, from St Joseph's Church in Waitara.

Butler said while vandalism and theft were issues he had encountered in other churches he had worked at, it was important the buildings kept their doors unlocked.

"It's a sacred place which needs to be open so people can go and sit and pray," he said.

Butler said while parishioners were "not naive" about the security risk presented by leaving the doors ajar, it was an important element of the catholic faith that churches were a place where anyone in the community felt they could visit.

In fact, he said the presence of people acted as a human-powered surveillance system along with the rest of the neighbourhood, who could report any suspicious behaviour.

He said much of the church's property was priceless because of its spiritual worth, while other items were of sentimental value as they had been donated by families.

However, he hoped if people were driven to crime due to their circumstances they would consider reaching out to the church first, before they thought about ripping anybody off.

He said the church was able to provide support for families in crisis and people only needed to ask for help.

"We'd much prefer to have it done that way, rather than for people to steal from us," he said.

"We'd do anything we can to support them," he said.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: redbankgreen.com

The vandalism of the statue of St Junipero at Carmel Mission, where he is buried, came three days after the canonisation in Washington, DC.

Vandals damaged statues, gravesites and signs and poured green and white paint on doors, police said.

"Saint of Genocide" was written on a headstone, paint was splashed on a toppled St Junipero statue and headstones were splattered with dark red paint.

A police report noted that the paint splattered on gravesites was on graves of Europeans, not Native Americans.

The vandalism occurred the night before a Mass was celebrated at the Carmel Mission honouring the saint.

Volunteers cleaned up most of the destruction before the Mass began.

The Facebook page for the Carmel Mission put out a call for volunteers to help clean up after discovering the destruction on September 27.

A post urged prayers that "the people who did this take responsibility for their actions on this sacred property and that they seek reconciliation".

St Junipero is a controversial figure, with some Native Americans contending that he was more an oppressor than a saint.

A New York Times report stated that historians agree that he forced Native Americans to abandon their tribal culture and convert to Christianity.

The article also stated that he had them whipped and imprisoned and sometimes worked or tortured to death.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• New York Times
• Image: CNM news

Representatives of the Lincoln Rd centre contacted police today after finding the premises had been entered and damaged.

Sergeant Todd Webley of Christchurch Police says there is no indication at this stage that the break-in was racially motivated. "There are no slogans or messages, or anything that suggests a racial or cultural motivation for the break-in.

"It has all the hallmarks of an opportunistic burglary, and an initial scene examination suggests the offenders may have gained entry through an insecure window."

Source

• The Press
• Image: JBrianday.com

Church staff noticed the shattered shell in its grotto behind the church building in Maxwell Rd yesterday after the Queen's Birthday Weekend.

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Police said the perpetrators, who are believed to be Jewish extremists, defaced a wall leading to the Church of the Dormition, a century-old structure built on the site where tradition says the Virgin Mary died.

The graffiti read "Jesus, son of a whore, price tag." A similar graffite was painted on a monastery at Latrun a month ago.

Authorities in Jerusalem immediately ordered the formation of a special investigative team to locate the perpetrators.

Jewish extremists are thought to have carried out similar vandalism on churches, mosques and army property in response to what they consider pro-Palestinian government policies.

The Latrun vandalism last month occurred shortly after settlers were evicted from the illegal outpost of Migron.

The Dormition Church, built over a century ago near the site of the Last Supper, is one of the Franciscan order's most important holdings in the Holy Land.

Though Israel has only about 155,000 Christian citizens, less than 2 percent of its 7.9 million people, the repeated defacing of their sacred sites has shocked the country and drawn official condemnation.

Tuesday's graffiti is the latest in a wave of vandalism on Christian holy sites in Israel.

"Price tag actions go against the morals and values of Judaism and do great harm to the State of Israel," said President Shimon Peres.

"It is forbidden to harm the holy sites of religions and faiths," Peres said.

Church officials have said mere condemnation is not enough.

In an interview with the Associated Press last month, one of the church's top officials in the Holy Land, the Rev. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, called for action.

"It's important not just to condemn, but also to work, to take initiatives to stop this phenomenon," he said.

The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land posted a statement about the latest incident on the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, saying it was "distressed" with the vandalism.

Sources

• AP/Fox News
• Haaretz
• Los Angeles Times
• Image: AP/Haaretz