Quickies: A Hate Crime

     This happened in my vicinity, at a church where I sometimes attend Mass:

     PORT JEFFERSON STATION, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A statue of the Virgin Mary was beheaded in Port Jefferson Station over the weekend, according to Suffolk County Police.

     The statue was vandalized at the Church of Saint [Gerard] Majella in Port Jefferson Station sometime between Friday and Sunday.

     Investigators are treating the matter as a hate crime.

     It’s easy to feel one’s blood boiling over an incident like this. It’s far harder to work out what might be done to prevent anything like it. The haters of Christianity are always on offense. It’s impossible to predict where they’ll strike next. Will they deface a church? Ruin other statues or sacred images? Assault churchgoers, whether going to or coming from? Assault priests and rectories? Who can say?

     I hope it was a couple of drunken teenagers, as one commenter to the linked article suggested. All the other possibilities are worse. There’s no way to defend against any of them.

     Long Island’s Catholics are numerous. We tend to be strongly bonded to our parishes and protective of our churches. We’re heavy participants in local charity, both as donors and volunteer workers. But we can’t stand guard over what’s sacred to us twenty-four hours per day. That’s the haters’ biggest advantage.

     Perhaps prayer will help. It usually does.