Asking for prayers & forgiveness at site of Medjugorje Church

 

File photo of Our Lady Queen of Peace in Medjugorje, taken in May 2026 

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• Medjugorje
• virgin mary
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Medjugorje parish condemns vandalism, urges prayer and forgiveness

After an image of Our Lady was defaced and the outdoor altar of St. James Church set alight, the parish of Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina urges the faithful not to repay evil with evil.

Vatican News

The parish of Medjugorje has condemned acts of vandalism that damaged several of its places of prayer overnight and has invited the faithful to respond with “prayer, fasting, and forgiveness.”

“It is with great sadness that we received the news of the act of vandalism,” the Medjugorje Parish Office said in a statement on Tuesday.

It added that cleaning and repairs began immediately so the affected areas could once again be properly prepared for prayer.

The parish thanked everyone assisting with the work, saying their efforts were helping the shrine to remain “a place of encounter with God, a place of peace.”

The Blessed Virgin Mary is honored as Queen of Peace at the Shrine in Medjugorje.

Rather than responding with anger, the parish urged Catholics to pray for those responsible.

“We pray for the conversion of the hearts of those who committed this act,” it said, asking that the Lord may touch them with His grace and lead them on the path of goodness.

The parish also appealed for peace in every human heart. It encouraged the faithful “not to return evil for evil,” but to bear witness through our lives to love, forgiveness, and hope.

Vandalism and fire

Police in Bosnia and Herzegovina received the first report at about 4:30 a.m., after the face and hands of the image of Our Lady on Apparition Hill, or Podbrdo, were found covered in black paint and offensive messages were discovered nearby.

About half an hour later, officers were informed of a fire at the outdoor altar of St. James Church.

Surveillance footage reportedly showed a man pouring a liquid, believed to be petrol, over the altar before setting it alight. The fire was quickly extinguished.

A banner in Polish also named six people associated with the alleged apparitions first reported in 1981 and accused them of deception.

Police later arrested a man in the Ljubuški area on suspicion of involvement in the incidents. His identity, nationality, and other personal details have not been released.

Investigators are working to establish the motive and determine whether the suspect was connected with all the acts recorded in Medjugorje.

Shrine remains open

In the statement, the parish stressed that the shrine remains open to all pilgrims and that its regular prayer program is continuing. The affected areas are being cleaned and restored as quickly as possible.

In September 2024, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the approval of Pope Francis, issued a nihil obstat regarding the spiritual experience connected with Medjugorje.

The decision recognized the positive spiritual fruits associated with the shrine and permitted public devotion, without making a declaration on the supernatural character of the reported apparitions.

Pastor urges prayers for the vandal that defaced their Catholic Church

 

Pastor urges faithful to pray for vandal who defaced church: ‘That’s being a Christian’

By Daniel Payne

CNA Staff, May 13, 2024 / 11:16 am

A pastor in Portland, Oregon, recently urged his parish to pray for a vandal who defaced the church building with vulgar graffiti, arguing that the controversy gets to the “core message” of the Gospel itself. 

A vandal tagged St. Patrick’s Church in Portland with several graffiti in April that read “[expletive] you, my body my choice,” a popular slogan for the pro-abortion movement. 

In his homily the morning the graffiti was discovered, the parish’s pastor, Father Timothy Furlow, told parishioners that he deliberately left the vulgar message visible for the faithful to see on their way to Mass. 

“I wanted you to see it,” he said. “Somebody said, ‘Oh, we got to cover this up.’ And then I’m like, nope. I want them to see that.” 

“And the reason is because it fits kind of perfectly with what the core message of the Gospel is,” he continued. “The core message here is pretty simple: We can’t do anything good apart from God. Not a thing. We can’t pull a good thing off. It’s just absolutely impossible.”

The pastor indicated the perpetrator is a known vandal around Portland. Furlow said he himself has felt a desire to see the criminal “get his comeuppance.”

“But the other part of me, the part of my heart that the Holy Spirit is working in — that I let him work in — thinks what I really want is for him to be an usher,” he said. 

“I want him to come to my door and say, ‘I have no idea what’s going on. I have never experienced anything like this in my life. But somehow in the core of my being, I know that God is real and Jesus is God.’”

The pastor said he hopes that the vandal would follow that impulse “all the way through OCIA and the sacraments of initiation, into the door that he once cursed and spray-painted.”

Furlow reminded the assembly of Jesus’ command to “pray for those who persecute you.”

“Christianity and Catholicism [is] utterly unlike anything else on the earth because it runs directly contrary to the logic of the world, the flesh, and the devil,” he said. 

The pastor then asked the parish to take a minute to “sincerely pray for that guy and every single person like him in Portland, Oregon, that’s hurting with a broken heart and is turning to the darkness to try to fix it rather than the Lord who is healing himself.” 

“Pray that he’d actually be able to receive that grace and that one day he would be welcoming you at the door to Mass,” he said. 

“That’s being a Christian. That’s truly living our supernatural Catholic faith.”

Another Catholic Sanctuary vandalized

 

Priest narrowly escapes attack damaging historic Oregon Catholic shrine

by Gina Christian, OSV News

(OSV News) — A historic place of prayer in Portland, Oregon, sustained significant damage to one of its buildings, while a priest narrowly escaped harm, in a Feb. 28 vandalism attack.

Security cameras, religious objects and windows were smashed in the monastery of The Grotto, the National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother, a 54-acre shrine operated by the Order of Friar Servants of Mary.

In an email to OSV News, shrine executive director Chris Blanchard said “an unidentified man broke into The Grotto Monastery, a private residence for the Servite Friars who minister at The Grotto,” at approximately 6 a.m. that day.

“The intruder vandalized several rooms, including the monastery chapel, and damaged or destroyed several sacred items,” said Blanchard in his email. “Police responded immediately to the incident and arrested the intruder shortly after. We are thankful that no one was injured, including the intruder.”

According to local media reports, the suspect — named by the Portland Police Bureau as 57-year-old Paul Joseph Yauger — entered the grounds of the property early that morning and shattered security cameras, triggering a police response.

Blanchard told local media that responding officers were initially unable to locate the intruder on the extensive and heavily wooded property and departed. Less than an hour later, the suspect forced his way into the monastery and, using a stick, pushed in the door to the room of Servite Father Leo Hambur as the priest was calling emergency services.

“I thought it was a gun,” Father Hambur told media. “I was so scared at the time.”

The suspect “looked at me, and he said, ‘Who are you?'” Father Hambur recalled. “Then he moved out through another door, and he picked up (a pair of) scissors.”

The priest then fled the monastery while the suspect locked himself inside. Police returned and arrested Yauger, who was being held in the Multnomah County Detention Center on five charges of burglary, trespassing, criminal mischief and unlawful use of a weapon. Three of the charges are felonies.

An adjacent convent in which four women religious live was not damaged.

Yauger was in court March 1 after refusing to appear for a scheduled hearing the prior day.

According to one local media outlet, a police spokesperson said Yauger was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time of the attack, and was “yelling and confrontational.”

Blanchard told media he could only guess the total amount of damage, adding, “The real damage is to the sanctity of this place.”

The Grotto was established in 1923 by Servite Father Ambrose Mayer, the order’s first pastor in Oregon. Father Mayer founded the shrine as a tribute to Mary, the mother of Jesus, following a childhood promise he had made when his own mother recovered after almost dying in childbirth. Pope Pius XI gave his apostolic blessing to the project, and Father Mayer used the entirety of his savings for the $3,000 deposit on the property, then owned by the Union Pacific Railroad Company. The Grotto’s iconic cave features a stone altar and a replica of Michelangelo’s Pieta.

At the shrine’s dedication in May 1924, Archbishop Alexander Christie prayed the place would be “a sanctuary of peace for all peoples of the earth, and surely in this day a sanctuary is needed. Torn with differences, strife, and grief, the world needs sanctuary where the human spirit can seek peace and consolation.”

The shrine now features extensive gardens, a conference center, daily Mass and recitations of the rosary, self-guided pilgrimages and retreats, and a Christmas lights festival.

Vandalism at Catholic School in very Catholic south Louisiana

 

Jesus statue beheaded at Louisiana catholic school; vandalism suspect sought

LOCKPORT, La. (WVUE) - Police are looking for the person(s) responsible for vandalizing a statue of Jesus on a school’s campus in Lockport.

Police say the incident occurred overnight between Sept. 12 and 13 at Holy Savior Catholic School, located on Church Street.

In a photo shared by the police department, the statue was seen headless, standing in its prominent position in front of the school building.

Anyone with information that could be useful for detectives is asked to contact the Lockport Police Department at 985-532-2808.

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Violent vandalism at Catholic Church in Denver

 

Drive-by gunshots target Denver-area Catholic church

By Kevin J. Jones

Denver, Colo., Aug 8, 2022 / 17:30 pm

A gunman shot at a Denver-area Catholic church in separate early morning incidents Saturday and Monday. No one was hurt, but one estimate suggests the gunshots caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage.

Parish staff stressed the need to pray for the perpetrator and emphasized that they are taking the utmost security precautions.

“We are praying for the conversion of whoever did this,” Deacon Derrick Johnson of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church told CNA Aug 8. “If there’s any opportunity to speak to that person, we’d be happy to speak with them and have a dialogue.”

Johnson spoke after two separate rounds of gunshots hit the parish church in unincorporated Adams County just north of Denver. The Adams County Sheriff's Office is handling the investigation.

“In the early morning of Aug. 6 and 8 there were two separate incidents of shootings that hit the front doors at Assumption Parish,” Johnson recounted.

Security footage of the first incident, the deacon said, appears to show “a single motorcyclist shooting what we believe to be a pistol as he drove by.”

“These incidents happened after hours,” Johnson said. “We don’t believe they are targeting people. Just targeting the church for whatever reason.”

Photos of the church sent to CNA show damage to the church exterior, including a bullet hole in a window. Doors and doorframes also were damaged. Photos show a broken outer window above a set of double doors, with shattered glass beneath.

“The first morning we discovered three shots, two into the door and one through the stained glass in the door,” Johnson said. “Two of the bullets were recovered and given to the Adams County sheriff.”

“On Monday morning, another bullet impact was discovered, this time above the doors, impacting the protective layer of the stained glass. The projectile was also given to the sheriff’s office,” the deacon added.

News of the shooting has not yet become widespread among parishioners, Johnson said, though the first incident took place hours before a wedding.

Johnson wanted parishioners to know that parish staff is committed to their safety.

“We are absolutely conscious of security, between our security team and ensuring that we have adequate camera coverage and lighting in front of the parish. We’ll do our best to make sure that whoever did this is prosecuted,” he told CNA.

Though the bullet fractured one outer window, it did not break through a stained-glass window behind it.

The church’s custom-fit doors were recently completed at a cost of $75,000. The deacon described Assumption as a “very, very old parish.” The parish church was first dedicated in 1912, though the structure has gone through several renovations and expansions incorporating the original building.

Johnson estimated the damage at about $75,000.

The parish church is on the same property as Assumption School, which serves about 130 students in pre-K through eighth grade. The shooting has not affected the school, as the school year has not yet begun.

“Hopefully it’s limited to a late-night incident,” Johnson said. “We will be taking the highest security precautions for the school like we always do.”

Though the parish wants the perpetrator brought to justice, the parish is praying for its attacker.

“We’re praying for whatever is going on in the life of the person who did this,” the deacon said. “The parish is here for them.”

CNA contacted the Adams County Sheriff for comment but did not receive a response by publication time Monday.

Vandalism against Catholic Churches continues post overturning of Roe v Wade

 

Catholic Mother Mary statue destroyed in California small town

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by Sheldon Gajarian

Kingsburg, Calif. — Parishioners were saddened seeing the Virgin Mother Mary statue destroyed Saturday morning when arriving to mass.

The Kingsburg Holy Family Catholic Church removed the statue to a secure location.

All three heads of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus were ripped off and pieces strewn around the beautiful sitting area.

The statue was crafted by a local artist.

Parish staff believes it can be repaired.

A police report was filed.

One parishioner told the Fresno Diocese the Covenant Church was vandalized a couple of weeks ago. It is located about three blocks away.