The grave of the late Patriarch Neophyte was desecrated in Sofia, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church informed Tuesday morning, April 16.
A 38-year-old disrupted the Holy Saturday celebrations at the All Saints parish in Jastrzębie-Zdrój. Entering the altar area, he loudly shouted vulgar words from the pulpit. When being asked to leave the altar stage, he attacked one of the liturgical servants as well as a police officer during arrest.
A bust of Christ was vandalised and the church door damaged in Church of Saint-Germain in Rennes. The vandalism was discovered by the parish priest, Father Philippe Hebert, on March 20. The priest lodged a complaint the next day, investigations are ongoing.
The church of San Giuseppe, in Melito Porto Salvo, in Reggino, was desecrated by unknown individuals. The perpetrators damaged the security cameras, forced entry into the church, stole the consecrated host and scatter the others. Furthermore, a sacred vessel was also taken.
On March 16, the cemetery surrounding the church of Bovekerke (Koekelare) was vandalised. Approximately a dozen statues, ornaments, flowers, and memorial plaques had been destroyed. The affected graves are not all close together and often involve very old concessions. According to another resident, some crosses have also been removed from the graves.
The pastor of the Protestant church in Marktrodach discovered human excrement behind the altar in the afternoon of March 15. The perpetrator is unknown, but it appears to be a repeat occurrence. The police reported that this was not the first instance of such an act in the church.
During the night of March 11, acts of vandalism were committed in the cemetery of the village Clermont-d'Excideuil. Inscriptions with Islamic references were found on graves, the war memorial, the church door, a calvary memorial, and a fountain. Some of the tags read "France is already Allah's", "Isa will break the cross" and "Submit to Islam". Altogether, more than 50 graves were smeared.
On February 29, a resident of Fresselines, on his way to the family crypt, discovered the unprecedented vandalism in the Creuse cemetery. Unknown perpetrators had desecrated around 40 graves: between some graves plates had been moved or broken, pots had been thrown to the ground. Some slabs had also been unscrewed and piled up on the ground. Stelae and plaques had been broken or moved.
On February 26, thieves broke into the church of the Madonna dei Sette Dolori in Vasto and stole offerings from the donation box. The perpetrators furthermore left human excrement on the floor of the church. The parish priest expressed his shock and disgust about this gesture of degradation and disrespect.
Unknown perpetrators broke into the parish church of St. Johann in Tirol, Austria, and stole and damaged religious objects. The figure of Christ was broken off a wooden cross.
In Dordogne, four large public crucifixes in separate towns were defaced with references to Islam sometime between December 24, 2023 and February 15, 2024. Two of the crosses were located on the side of the road in Saint-Pantaly-d'Excideuil, the two others in Cherveix-Cubas. One cross, built in the 1800s in a village of 146 people, had the word “Islam” and a crescent moon sprayed on it. Another inscription read “Allah”. Yet another cross was spray-painted with, “Today is the land of infidels, tomorrow the land of Islam.”
During the night between February 10 and 11, unknown perpetrators vandalized the church of St. Ägidius in Grafing. Several prayer books were thrown to the floor, the microphones on the altar were tampered with and an elaborately decorated Easter candle was broken. The material damage is estimated at around 300 euros.
The cross of the 7th Century Vankasar Church has been found removed on pictures circulating online.
On February 5, vandals attacked the church of Notre Dame in Fontenay-le-Comte and broke two statues. The local Catholic community is deeply shocked about these acts.
A man entered Saint Jean-Baptiste church and violently attacked the statue of John the Baptist using a crucifix. The statue, made of plaster, was completely broken and the crucifix was badly damaged.
Thieves broke into the Church of Saint Mary of the Carmine in Lecce and stole money, desecrated the Eucharist kept in the tabernacle, and turned various sacred furnishings into corpses.
Members of "Defentsa Komunitatea", a youth section of the Basque independence and nationalist movement, interrupted a mass throwing leaflets and fake money. During the last weeks some churches in Azpeitia and Beasain, as well as churches in Lasao, Arroa and Aizarna, have also been vandalized by members of that same group.
On January 8, between 2am and 4am, thieves broke into the sanctuary of Beata Vergine dell'Olmo in Portomaggiore, Italy, and stole hosts, sacred objects, video and sound equipment, and damaged the interior of the church. When the parish priest, Don Ugo Berti, went to prepare for the first mass of the day at 6.30am he found the church door open. At first he thought it was an accident, but then he saw that the entrance had been forced open in several places. He quickly alerted the authorities. "I am afraid it was a theft on behalf of Satanists: the hosts could be used to celebrate black masses," the parish priest said.
At the beginning of December, for example, the pilgrimage church of St Mary in Kupfergasse in Cologne was the victim of an attack in which the perpetrators left eclectic messages on the walls of the chapel of grace, ranging from utter nonsense to "666" and "Allah Akbar" (sic): pure provocation that has nothing to do with either genuine Satanism or Islamism.
Back in 2018, the Spanish Association of Christian Lawyers lodged an application with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) with the help of the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), following the theft and host desecration by the “artist” Abel Azcona. Now, the ECHR has declared the application inadmissible.