Two Juveniles Charged In Church Vandalism
Two juveniles are facing charges after a burglary and vandalizing of property at St. Theresa of Avila Catholic Church in Rhodelia.
On Tuesday (4/9), deputies and detectives from the Meade County Sheriff’s Office responded to the church about a vandalism complaint.
Deputies met with church staff who were able to provide video of two juvenile subjects on the property vandalizing the exterior of the buildings. Deputies entered the church building and observed extensive damage to the inside. It appeared the juveniles had dispersed several fire extinguishers inside the church and destroyed numerous religious artifacts. The juveniles spread holy oil over the floor of the building destroying the carpet and turned the cross upside down on the altar. The damage to the church and Parish Hall is estimated at this time to be well over $10,000.
Detectives processed the scene at the facilities and collected numerous items of evidence. Deputies also took notice and processed additional damage to headstones at the cemetery across from St Theresa Church that were damaged the previous day.
Detectives were able to identify two juvenile suspects who are in custody at this time.
The suspects are being charged with Burglary in the Second Degree and Criminal Mischief in the First Degree. The investigation will be turned over to the County Attorney and Commonwealth Attorneys Office for prosecution.
NOTES FROM FATHER KNOTT
Thank God, they did not enter the new St. Theresa Family Life Center (old Cross Roads grade school) that we had just completed renovating several months back. However, our new security cameras that I had insisted on installing caught them on the videos. Neither did they enter the new Guest House (old rectory). They also did extensive damage in the Parish Hall. However, they did destroy several old tombstones in the old St. Theresa Cemetery including pushing over the headstone of Matilda Hurd Chisley that I had just recently had cleaned and reset. It was not broken completely, thank God, and is already being reset.
Matilda is the grandmother of the Venerable Augustus Tolton who was the first black Catholic priest ordained in the US and will hopefully soon be declared a saint by the Pope. Both Matilda and her daughter Martha Jane (mother of Augustus Tolton) were enslaved members of St. Theresa Parish. Martha Jane was moved to Missouri at age 17 by her "owner." Augustus Tolton was born enslaved until his mother escaped with him and his siblings from Missouri to the free state of Illinois as a child. Father Augustus Tolton attended seminary and was ordained in Rome because no US seminary would accept a black seminarian at that time!
No comments:
Post a Comment