A Southwest Miami-Dade church is the latest target in a string of July attacks on Christians and their property across the nation.
The Archdiocese of Miami hopes that surveillance footage and an investigation by local authorities will identify the suspect who beheaded a statue of Jesus Christ outside Good Shepherd Catholic Church Wednesday morning.
“This crime reflects the increasing attacks on the Catholic church across the country,” The Archdiocese of Miami said in a statement, a local Fox affiliate reported Wednesday.
Church officials also want the statue’s destruction investigated as a hate crime.
“They had some powerful hands to remove it,” Father Edvaldo DaSilva told the station of the efforts one would need to topple the statue.
Wednesday’s vandalism is roughly one week removed from the arrest of Steven Anthony Shields, 24, who is charged with attempted murder for an attack at a Catholic Church in nearby Ocala.
The suspect was apprehended July 11 after his vehicle plowed into the church, which was also set ablaze as parishioners prepared for Mass.
Similarly, Los Angeles cops are investigating a recent early-morning fire that nearly destroyed the San Gabriel mission.
Statues of the Virgin Mary were also defaced in Brooklyn and Boston.
A statue of Jesus Christ was found beheaded and knocked off its pedestal outside of a Southwest Miami-Dade church, and the Archdiocese of Miami believes the incident was not an accident. https://t.co/2AmRgWD7LL
— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) July 16, 2020
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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