“The Image of our Lady on Cedros Ave. has been severely vandalized. This is one of our saddest moments in addition to our pandemic times ever since,” stated the parish website for St. Elisabeth Catholic Church in Van Nuys, California.

The parish called the desecration an act of sacrilege against the Blessed Mother. They asked for donations to restore the tiles in the mural, and announced that plexiglass casing would be installed around it for security. Donations for restoration or for the plexiglass may be submitted through the parish website.

“I was speechless, and it was unbelievable,” told Father Vito Di Marzio, the pastor to KTLA5 news.

On April 21, the perpetrator was caught on video smashing the face of the Our Lady of Guadalupe mural in Van Nuys, California.

“It’s actually, for me, like doing it to your own mother,” Sister Angelie Marie Inoferio, principal of St. Elisabeth school, said to KTLA5.

“We cannot judge what is really inside of him, maybe it’s a cry for help,” Inoferio said. She said she was praying for the conversion of the perpetrator.

The parish held a prayer service in front of the vandalized mural last week, at which participants prayed the rosary and sang Marian hymns.

Source: CNA