Another statue of the Virgin Mary was attacked in Dorchester

About a mile away from Saint Peter’s church, where a hate-criminal set on fire the statue of Blessed Virgin Mary on July 11th, another image of Mary was vandalized in what it could be a coordinated attack in the neighborhood of Dorchester.

An unidentified person entered the grounds of Saint Teresa of Calcutta Parish sometime between Saturday evening, July 11th, and 8:00 a.m. Sunday, July 12th, and “emptied the contents of a trash barrel onto a church walkway and then placed the barrel over the head of the statue of the Virgin Mary,” according to a report from the Catholic Action League Of Massachusetts. On Thursday, July 16th, the disturbance happened again around 6:20 a.m., the organization stated.

According to the Attorney General of Massachusetts, a hate crime is considered when it is motivated by prejudice resulting in damage to property, and mainly when the offender targets the victim with a “protected characteristic,” including religion.

In 2019, the Boston police reported that several churches were subject to vandalism, including the church of Saint Gregory in Dorchester. The Catholic Action League estimates that “at least nineteen attacks against Catholic churches have taken place in Massachusetts since 2016, a more than 400% increase over the previous four year period.”