{"id":983452,"date":"2026-08-06T00:51:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T00:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/983452\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T00:51:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T00:51:40","slug":"virgin-mary-statue-smashed-at-st-rita-church-in-possible-hate-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/983452\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Mary statue smashed at St. Rita Church in possible hate crime"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n <\/p>\n

The New York Police Department (NYPD) are investigating the destruction of a Virgin Mary statue outside St. Rita Roman Catholic Church<\/a> in Long Island City as a possible hate crime after a man climbed over a fence and repeatedly smashed it down using a hammer.<\/p>\n

In surveillance video released by The Diocese<\/a> of Brooklyn, the masked man is seen violently hitting the statue outside the church in what Catholic officials say is the latest in a string of attacks targeting the parish.<\/p>\n

ANCIENT ESTATE TIED TO GROUP IN THE BIBLE UNEARTHED WITH ‘FASCINATING’ TREASURES IN ISRAEL<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Virgin <\/p>\n

The Virgin Mary statue was vadalised outside St. Rita Roman Catholic Church in Long Island City (St. Rita\u2019s Church)<\/p>\n

In a press release, church officials said it is the fourth reported vandalism<\/a> incident targeting the parish since 2024, with the New York City Police Department investigating the latest vandalism as a possible hate crime.<\/p>\n

According to the Diocese of Brooklyn<\/a>, the incident happened at around 1:42 a.m. on Aug. 1.<\/p>\n

WORLD-FAMOUS CATHOLIC SHRINE TORCHED, ‘DEVIL IN A SKIRT’ SCRAWLED ON VIRGIN MARY STATUE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"St. <\/p>\n

The Diocese said in a statememt that the attack was the fourth vandalism incident at St. Rita Roman Catholic Church since 2024. (St. Rita Roman Catholic Church)<\/p>\n

The video shows the man, who is wearing a dark T-shirt and shorts, climb over the fence into a courtyard where a statue of the Blessed Mother stood.<\/p>\n

The suspect removes a hammer from his pocket and repeatedly strikes the statue before knocking it off its pedestal. He then climbs back over the fence and walks away.<\/p>\n

The Diocese said in a statement that the attack was the fourth vandalism incident<\/a> at St. Rita Roman Catholic Church since 2024.<\/p>\n

WOMAN ARRESTED AFTER ALLEGEDLY BEHEADING JESUS STATUE OUTSIDE CATHOLIC CHURCH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Masked <\/p>\n

Surveillance video released by the church shows a masked man, in a dark shirt and shorts, jumping over a fence into a courtyard where a statue of the Blessed Mother stood. (St. Rita\u2019s Church.)<\/p>\n

Past acts of vandalism in the parish include the destruction of a 60-year-old stained-glass window and graffiti that defaced a statue of St. Francis of Assisi and the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

There was also damage done to a statue of St. Jude<\/a> inside the church.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Diocese of Brooklyn told Fox News Digital that no arrests have been made.<\/p>\n

“This week, the NYPD also issued a crime stats update and hate crimes are up by 9.4% over the same 7-month period (Jan-July) of last year,” John Quaglione, Deputy Press Secretary for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn said.<\/p>\n

Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! The New York Police Department (NYPD) are investigating the destruction…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":983453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,365,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,1130],"class_list":["post-983452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-religion","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vandalism"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117045827268570738","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=983452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/983452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/983453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=983452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=983452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=983452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}