BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | Holy Mary, blessed mother of God!
Some downright sinful — or just cruel-hearted or perhaps clueless — robbers stole a statue from St. Anthony of Padua Church, at W. Houston and Sullivan Sts., early on the morning of Tues., Nov. 10, according to the church.
Father Joe Lorenzo, the church’s pastor, said two individuals swiped one of the statues from its outdoor shrine to Our Lady of Fatima, located in the historic house of worship’s garden on W. Houston St.
The shrine depicts the reported apparition of Mary, the mother of Jesus, to three shepherd children in 1917 in the village of Fatima, Portugal.
The scene featured Our Lady of Fatima, with the three children, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, and some lambs. Now, though, there are only two children. The statue stolen was the one of Jacinta, depicted as a veiled girl on her knees.
“The shrine is very popular among Catholic devotees, in particular the Portuguese community,” Lorenzo said.
A church surveillance camera showed two individuals hanging around on the shrine pedestal, apparently for several hours, at times playing with the statues, he said.
“It seems that they eventually left, but came back, possibly with a car,” Lorenzo said. “One of the men jumped over the fence enclosing the garden, grabbed the statue and ran off. It seems he handed the statue off to another person, who possibly put the statue in a car and left.
“The surveillance camera captured the incident from several angles, and the video is being processed,” Lorenzo said.
As if it wasn’t enough to yank Jacinta out of the shrine, the “devilish” duo also swiped one of the sheep.
St. Anthony’s posted information about the theft on its Facebook page, and received “many comments and words of concern,” according to Lorenzo. The dirty deed was also reported at Sunday Masses at the church.
As of this week, the only update was that now the church is not sure if the caper was pulled off by two men or a man and a woman.
“Some have indicated that there was a very drunk couple playing with the statues that morning,” Lorenzo said on Tuesday.
