Second statue of the Virgin Mary found desecrated in Dorchester

BOSTON — In Dorchester, a second statue of the Virgin Mary was desecrated outside St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish.

Sadly, that has happened twice.

The first time was overnight on July 11th, according to C.J. Doyle, the Executive Director of the Catholic League of Massachusetts.

“Someone took a garbage barrel, emptied its contents and then placed the garbage barrel over the head of the statue of the Blessed Mother,” said Doyle.

It happened again four days later.

“This was repeated again four days later and a passerby spotted it again on Thursday morning July 16th,” said Doyle.

This is the second statue to be targeted in Dorchester in recent days. A statue of the Virgin Mary at nearby St. Peter’s Parish was burned after plastic flowers she was holding were set on fire.

Parishioners were deeply disturbed.

“This is horrible and it’s happening everywhere,” said one local woman. “Who would want to do this?”

Doyle says these incidents are appalling.

“I think that’s really a very deliberate, calculated and mean spirited and sacrilegious expression of contempt for Our Lady, for the Catholic faith and frankly for the Catholics in Boston,” said Doyle.

He points out that these types of attacks are on the rise across the country.

A statue of the Blessed Mother in Queens, New York was defaced, and arson is now being looked at as a possibility in the fire at a historic California mission church.

“We’ve seen Mission San Gabriel burned to the ground in a suspicious fire which Alcohol, Tabacco and Firearms is investigating,” said Doyle.

Doyle says city and state leaders must take action to protect the First Amendment rights of churches to exist.

“So Governor Baker, A.G. Healey and Mayor Walsh need to devote law enforcement resources to putting a stop to this,” said Doyle.

Boston 25 news has also learned that the statue set afire at St. Peter’s is now being investigated as a hate crime.

Cox Media Group