New York Catholic church suffers fourth vandalism attack in 2 years with destruction of Mary statue

Police are investigating the attack on St. Rita Catholic Church as a hate crime, the Diocese of Brooklyn said.

A Catholic parish in New York has suffered what the Diocese of Brooklyn says is the fourth incident of vandalism in two years after a man destroyed a statue of the Blessed Mother in an early-morning attack.

The destructive episode at St. Rita Roman Catholic Church in the neighborhood of Long Island City in Queens occurred on Aug. 1 when a man jumped a fence around the courtyard of the parish and smashed a statue of the Virgin Mother with a hammer.

Photos of the attack showed the statue of Mary knocked off its pedestal and in pieces.

The Brooklyn Diocese said in a news release that the New York Police Department is investigating the incident as a hate crime. A diocesan spokesman told EWTN News that no arrests had yet been made in the case as of the morning of Aug. 6.

The diocese said the attack was the fourth of a series of incidents of vandalism at the parish since 2024. In previous attacks vandals smashed a stained-glass window and defaced statues of both St. Francis of Assisi and St. Jude.

Numerous other New York-area parishes have also been vandalized in recent years. Among them was an October 2024 incident at St. Thérèse of Lisieux Church in Brooklyn in which a man vandalized two statues, one of the Blessed Mother and one of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

Similar incidents occurred at other churches in 2023, including at two parishes also located in Brooklyn. A February 2024 report by the Family Research Council found an uptick in hostility and vandalism against churches in the U.S., particularly Catholic parishes.

In January, New York State Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton called for increased security for churches after multiple crimes at Catholic parishes on Staten Island.

Church, the state senator said at the time, “is a place of peace and reflection; nobody should feel unsafe where they pray.”

Recent data from the Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe, meanwhile, showed that church arson attacks across Europe nearly doubled in 2024.

The fire attacks were part of a broader surge in anti-Christian hate crimes that included 274 personal assaults against Christians and the killing of a 76-year-old Spanish monk, according to the report.