Madrid, Spain, Jun 14, 2008 / 01:00 am
A group of vandals destroyed a statue of St. Anthony of Padua at the parish of San Miguel in Valladolid, which the pastor Father Javier Gomez called “an total attack against religious freedom.”
The latest attack was another in a series of acts of vandalism that began on Corpus Christi. For several days afterwards the glass panel that protects the statue of St. Anthony has been covered in satanic graffiti and inverted crosses, the priest said.
Attacks on the parish subsided in recent days, but they returned this week with the destruction of the statue. The delinquents “threw rocks at the glass protecting the statue,” which is “beloved and venerated by parishioners,” and they threw the statue on the ground and reduced it to rubble.
Father Gomez said he has requested greater security from local officials to “protect the constitutional rights and the religious freedom that was violated that night.”
Police have yet to detain any suspects in the case.