ColumbusLandmarks Video Screengrab / YouTube
CV NEWS FEED // Following a series of robberies, a New Jersey church decided to lock its doors in the afternoon to prevent further crimes against the parish that had included another abomination: someone putting human feces in the baptismal font.
The Church of the Holy Rosary in Edgewater, New Jersey, wrote on its Facebook page, “We sincerely regret the necessity of closing the Church, thus prohibiting the well-intentioned and faithful from spending time in the Lord’s House in sacred prayer and contemplation.”
The announcement asked for prayers for the soul of the person who committed the act the afternoon of Feb. 12.
NJ.com reported that a parishioner cleaned out the font, and the pastor reported the crime to the police.
Edgewater resident Patricia Firrincili told NJ.com, “I emphasized to him [the pastor] this is a hate crime, not vandalism.”
Church officials state that police could not test for fingerprints since so many people use the holy water font each week. Police are still investigating the case, according to MSN.
In a Facebook post Feb. 24, the church invited the whole community of Edgewater to join in an evening of prayer at 4:30 p.m. March 8 in response to the desecration.
“The entire Edgewater Community is invited, regardless of your faith, to join us as we pray for healing in our Parish, our community, and the world,” the post said. “We will also pray for the unfortunate soul who performed this heinous act.”
The prayer will lead up unto the church’s Saturday vigil Mass.
“This is a time to shine a positive light on a dreadful event and to move forward as a whole in peace and unity,” the post said.
CatholicVote’s violence tracker indicates that since 2020, there have been 485 attacks on Catholic churches in the United States. There have been seven attacks this year.
