Cross sawn up and corpus placed upside down
Vandals sawed down a roughly two-metre-high cross outside a church in Bann, desecrated the figure of Christ, and urinated in the sacristy—prompting shock in the local community and an ongoing police investigation.
In the village of Bann near Landstuhl, unidentified individuals committed a severe act of vandalism at the Church of St. Valentine last week by cutting down a large outdoor cross, removing the corpus, and placing it upside‑down in front of the church entrance. They also urinated in the church’s sacristy—a combination of physical destruction and sacrilegious violation. According to a police spokesperson, the matter has been officially reported, and investigators are pursuing leads against unknown perpetrators.
Residents of the approximately 2,250‑person community expressed deep dismay, describing the incident as a “shameless act”. In response, local craftsmen and civic groups have offered help to rebuild the cross, demonstrating solidarity and a commitment to restoring what was damaged.
Sources: Katsholish.de, Die Rheinpfalz
Photo: Wikipedia, by Marcus Leister, CC BY-SA 4.0
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