Graffiti About Burning the Church on The Parish of Santa María Magdalena

Case information
Incident date
Country
Spain
Place
Madrid
Categories
  • Social Hostility / Intolerance
Attack Against
  • Faith
Perpetrator / Motive Indicators
  • Private
  • Radical Left
Hate Crime & Violent Incidents
  • Vandalism (all)
  • Vandalism of Church
  • Insult or Incitement
Place of Incident
  • Church
Bias Indicators
  • Comments/Written Statements/Gestures/Graffiti
  • Significance of Property/Structure/Location to religious community
  • Victim/Witness Perception
Reported to Police
  • Unknown
Response of Local Authorities
  • Unknown
Symbolic image; not a photograph of the reported incident.Image credit: Michael Walter on Unsplash

On the 5th of May, the façade of the church of St. Mary Magdalene was painted with the graffiti "The only Church that illuminates is the one that burns" and an anarchist symbol. The priest Fr. Lozano found this painting on the wall next morning and posted a video to share his reflection on what happened and the readings that we can extract from them.

Lozano responding to the question of Why the parish might have been targered: "Perhaps it has done so because 50 days ago the church was closed to avoid contagion, perhaps because in these 50 days the parish has attended to the patients of coronavirus in the hospital of Valdemoro, perhaps because the parish through Caritas and a lot of volunteers have attended to the needs of dozens of families who ask for help especially when it comes to shopping, perhaps because through fraternities have made projects of gowns and masks that have been offered generously to those who need it or the homes for the elderly. I don't know why." (COPE)

Sources