FBI investigates vandalism incident at Pennsylvania Catholic church

CNA Staff, Jul 22, 2025 / 12:32 pm (CNA).

Federal agents are investigating a vandalism incident at a church in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, according to Bishop Mark Eckman.

Eckman said in a July 19 statement that St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, had been desecrated with “anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic messages.”

The vandalism “wounded not only the people of this parish but every member of our diocesan family,” the bishop said.

“This holy place, meant for prayer, community, and the merciful presence of God has been violated in a deeply painful way,” he added.

Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are leading the inquiry into the incident, the bishop said.

On Monday the diocese released photos of the vandalism “with the hope that it will prompt someone in the community to come forward with information that may assist investigators in identifying those responsible.”

Images showed a statue of the Virgin Mother spray-painted with a Star of David as well as a door marked with graffiti and a wall tagged with profanity and a swastika.

The diocese is “heartbroken over this hateful act,” Eckman said on Monday, adding that he was urging the faithful to “[pray] for comfort and peace.”

Bradford Arick, a spokesman for the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, confirmed to CNA on Tuesday that the agency “has been made aware of the reported vandalism and is investigating.”

The Family Research Council said in a report last year that vandalism against churches — especially Catholic places of worship — has increased significantly in the U.S. since 2018.

Arielle Del Turco, the director of the group’s Center for Religious Liberty, said last year that “our culture is demonstrating a growing disdain for Christianity and core Christian beliefs, and acts of hostility against churches could be a physical manifestation of that.”

Many of those acts of violence appear to have been in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, which allowed abortion to be regulated by the states for the first time in decades.

Then-U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, last year demanded that then-President Joe Biden protect Catholic churches from the “growing number of attacks” they suffered in the wake of that repeal.

A Catholic church in Wichita, Kansas, was vandalized in March, including damages to statues and hateful graffiti. President Donald Trump at the time described the incident as “terrible” and vowed that the government would “take a look at it.”