Church members, community clean up after Catholic church in Regina vandalized
Parish members and the community are still cleaning up St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church in Regina after vandals broke in and did significant damage.
"There was debris and material strewn from the main entrance to the main worship space, the sanctuary area, the music area," said Deacon Eric Gurash, Archdiocese of Regina director of communications.
On Sunday evening, one or more people broke through a window in the church and climbed into the main worship space of the church, which is located on the 100 block of Argyle Street North.
"There was some damage to the baptismal font, some of the images along the wall a couple of them were damaged," Garush said. "Some of the music equipment has some damage to them and some of the projection equipment is damaged.
"It really kind of makes you stop and catch your breath when you see it for the first time."
Garush said it appears nothing was taken.
Regina Police services are currently investigating.
In a statement Archbishop Donald Bolen said, "while this act of vandalism is troubling, in this Christmas season we have just celebrated, we have rejoiced that Christ comes precisely into our brokenness, and walks with us there. At the same time there remains much to be thankful for. No one was injured during the break in and the Tabernacle and other holy images and liturgical items were not destroyed."
Garush said they are still waiting on the insurance company to give them an estimate of the damage.
"We haven't had a lot of churches vandalized to this extent," he said.
"We've had some break-ins at some churches mostly around petty theft and that type of thing. And you get the usual tagging on the outside of of our buildings."
One silver lining to the incident has been the response from the community.
"We've had a good group of parish volunteers helping out and students from O'Neill High School right next door gave up some of their day to come out and help out with the clean up," Garush said.
"Whether it's a natural disaster or something more intentional like this take place, it really seems to bring out the very best in people," he said.
"That has been kind of a ray of hope through all of this for us."
Garush said Mass celebrations will be held at their normal times on Saturday at 5 p.m. and Sunday at 10 a.m.
