Jesus statue doused in red paint outside church, North Carolina police say
A Jesus statue was covered in red paint after an act of vandalism outside a North Carolina Catholic church, officials said.
The Rev. Roger Arnsparger said his congregation was gathering for Sunday service at St. Lawrence Basilica when it discovered the church’s Sacred Heart of Jesus sculpture had been defaced, according to a statement from the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte.
Photos shared with McClatchy News show red paint splattered onto the 7-foot-tall statue in downtown Asheville, a popular tourist spot in the North Carolina mountains.
Arnsparger said the figure has been standing for decades and “features Jesus with arms outstretched and the image of a heart upon His chest, representing Christ’s love for all of humanity,” according to the statement.
The Asheville Police Department said it contacted the church after hearing about the vandalism on Tuesday. Authorities are investigating the case, and no one had been charged as of Wednesday morning, spokesperson Christina Hallingse told McClatchy News in an email.
Church workers reportedly cleaned gallons of paint off the statue and repainted it before a Sunday afternoon church service.
“We are praying for those who did this, and we are endlessly grateful for the support of our community,” Arnsparger said, according to the diocese’s Catholic News Herald.
Some people took to social media to condemn those responsible for putting the paint on the statue and express their appreciation for the cleanup effort.
“If it’s not yours leave it alone,” one person wrote on the SKYline News Facebook page.
“I’m so glad it is cleaned off,” another Facebook user commented. “Sad that it happened in the first place.”
Earlier this month, almost a dozen churches were found marred with red paint in Calgary, Canada, as that country confronts the “Catholic church’s role in the residential school system,” the CBC reported.
This story was originally published July 7, 2021 at 3:30 PM with the headline "Jesus statue doused in red paint outside church, North Carolina police say."
