Church vandalized in Providence's Fox Point neighborhood
A
granite pulpit at Our Lady of the Rosary church, on Traverse Street in
Providence, lies in pieces after the church was vandalized. But Mass -- and four
baptisms -- went on as scheduled on Sunday. The Providence Journal/Glenn
Osmundson
By Richard Salit
Journal Staff Writer
Journal Staff Writer
Posted Jul. 5, 2015 at 11:20 PM
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — When the Rev. Joseph Escobar found what vandals had done to his historical and popular church, Our Lady of the Rosary, he decided to leave the desecration exactly as he found it.
So when parishioners arrived for Mass in English and Portuguese on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, they immediately saw the scene that had greeted him: An arched granite pulpit completely shattered, its artfully curved pieces crushing floral displays beneath it and littering the floor, and rosary beads brazenly swiped from the statue of the Virgin Mary.
"The people were kind of shocked. You could see the hurt in their faces," Escobar said on Sunday. "I left everything the way it was so people could see what happened. There was quite a bit of destruction."
Escobar did not allow the vandalism to interfere with services at the Catholic church off Wickenden Street in Fox Point. But he did make a point of talking about it during services.
"There was a terrible act of violence," he said. "We need to pray for the person who did it because, obviously, he's troubled. And we need to pray that he is apprehended so it doesn't happen anywhere else."
The vandalism at the heavily ethnic congregation comes amid recent violence at other minority churches around the country, including the fatal shootings at the predominantly black Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and suspicious fires at other churches in the South since then.
Escobar said the stone church on Traverse Street, towering beside Route 195, is in a relatively peaceful neighborhood and, as far as he knows, has never been seriously vandalized. He has been the pastor of the 129-year-old church for the last 14 years. It was founded to serve Portuguese immigrants, he said.
On Saturday afternoon, someone apparently entered the church in the hours that its doors were open leading up to Saturday's 4 p.m. confession and 5 p.m. Mass.
The vandal's target was the smaller of two matching hand-cut granite pulpits, which were created and installed during a renovation about 20 years ago. It was where announcements, not religious readings, were read. Escobar said it appeared that someone had found a steel bar inside the church and used it to pummel the pulpit until it collapsed in ruins. The bar was found nearby.
The church has notified Providence police. Investigators searching for evidence turned up fingerprints that they hope will prove helpful, Escobar said.
"Your first feeling is shock that it happened," he said. "Then the feeling of being violated. This sacred space was violated." He continued, "We get angry that people would violate your property and destroy something that is used for religious purposes."
Escobar wasn't sure of the value of the pulpit, or how much of it would be covered by insurance, but he said it could be challenging to find matching granite to build a new one. Some parishioners were already offering money to help cover the damage.
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