After the cemetery in Nowa Wieś Ełcka was first vandalised and then destroyed by felled trees, it is now to be restored to its original state. The bishop of the parish, Paweł Hause, said: "Destroying the sign of the cross, which is on an old gravestone, by handling it with heavy equipment, overturning it, destroying it and burying it, offends the feelings of all Christians - Catholics, Evangelicals, Orthodox. It was the residents of the village, Catholics, who first pointed out this anti-Christian behaviour. Whatever the perpetrators and those responsible say, there has been a lack of respect for the dead and for the cemetery, which is and should remain holy ground."