Christopher Blanchard / KOIN
CV NEWS FEED // Police arrested a vandal suspect who this week broke into a 100 year-old Catholic grotto in Northeast Portland, Oregon and caused “extensive damage,” according to local reports.
The suspect in custody, identified as Paul Yauger, 57, broke into the National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother on February 28 just before 6 a.m. Yauger broke into the Grotto’s Monastery and destroyed security cameras before proceeding to shatter windows, the grotto’s executive director Chris Blanchard told local news outlet KGW 8.
Representatives of the Grotto described the damage as “extensive,” according to local news outlet KOIN 6. Once Yauger was inside the Monastery, he “[shattered] multiple windows, [toppled] a tabernacle and [snapped] crucifixes,” Oregon Live reported. The suspect also destroyed items in several of the Monastery’s rooms, including sacred art and statues.
Several Servite Friars, of the order of Friar Servants of Mary, reside in the Monastery.
No one was injured, although a priest at the church, Fr. Leo Hambur, encountered the intruder in the building before Hambur escaped the building to call the police.
“I got up and called security right away and they told me to call 911. As soon as I got off the phone, the guy opened the door with a stick; I thought it was a gun,” Hambur told KGW 8.
During the encounter in the monastery’s hallway, Yauger picked up a pair of scissors on a table.
“He picked up a pair of scissors. I saw the door was wide open, and I said, ‘This [is] my chance to get outside the house,’” Hambur added.
KGW 8 reported that “[after] Hambur ran outside, the suspect then barricaded himself inside Hambur’s bedroom.”
Portland police responded to the scene and arrested him. The police described Yauger as “yelling and confrontational,” and that he “appeared as if he was experiencing a mental health crisis,” KGW 8 noted. Yauger was charged with trespassing, burglary, and criminal mischief.
The Grotto spans approximately 54 acres, and is open to the public. “This is a place of peace, prayer and natural beauty for everyone,” Blanchard said, according to KOIN 6.
In January, a winter storm caused “significant damage” at the Grotto, causing parts of the Grotto to remain closed until March. The Grotto had contractors set to visit about repairs on February 28, and upon arrival “turned their attention first to the broken windows and damage inside the monastery,” KOIN 6 noted.
CatholicVote’s Violence Tracker has reported over 400 attacks and vandalisms against Catholic churches across the United States since May of 2020.
