Priests who experienced church desecrations firsthand address how best to react

Two priests who experienced firsthand recent acts of desecration at the Medjugorje Shrine and a Mexican parish have addressed the issue of how Catholics should best respond to such acts.

Father Manuel Navarro, a priest of the Archdiocese of Madrid, Spain, was at the renowned Marian shrine on the night of July 27–28 when the Polish national Bartłomiej Włodzimierz Krakowiak allegedly vandalized a statue of the Virgin Mary and set fire to an outdoor altar located next to the local parish church.

“We were all shocked because we didnʼt know why it had happened,” Navarro explained in an interview with EWTN News, describing how images and videos began reaching him that morning.

Despite the emotional impact, the priest highlighted how “within minutes and hours, volunteers from the Cenacolo Community, along with pilgrim volunteers, set about cleaning and clearing everything away,” allowing devotional activities to proceed normally by that afternoon.

When asked how to respond to such attacks, Navarro said he felt the statement released by the parish that day rightly identified three key elements: prayer, fasting, and forgiveness.

“First, prayer for all those who commit attacks” not only in the physical sense, as in this most recent incident, but also bearing in mind that “every day there are attacks against the Most Holy Virgin in many ways, and we must also pray for the conversion of hearts.”

Secondly, Navarro added that “fasting makes us humble,” an attitude that counters the temptation to believe ourselves “superior to others.” Finally, regarding forgiveness, the Spanish priest stated that Medjugorje is “a place of reconciliation” that calls upon us to forgive those who offend us; otherwise, “the message is undermined if we take justice into our own hands.”

In conclusion, Navarro noted, the act of desecration served as an occasion to recall that “God brings good out of evil” — a providence made evident through the cooperation of all those present, which made it possible to celebrate a Mass of reparation at the desecrated altar that very afternoon.

Meanwhile, Father Gerardo Martínez, the St. Bonaventure Parish priest in Mexico’s Diocese of Saltillo, reflected on the attack carried out in the early hours of July 28 against the statue of the parishʼs patron saint, which was beheaded.

Martínez explained to EWTN News that during the month of July — which is dedicated to this saint and bishop — the statue is placed on a cart in the parish courtyard so that the faithful can approach to venerate it.

The parish responded with a statement encouraging prayers “for the person who committed this outrage” and urging everyone “to continue walking in the light of faith, creating bonds, ties, and better ways of living as a society and as a Christian community,” Martínez explained.

Facing this moment of “pain and sadness,” Martínez said the next step is to “strengthen our faith” and our sense of fraternity, and to “be signs of communion,” because such a profanation “is undoubtedly outrageous and distressing, yet it also strengthens us.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.