SHERMAN OAKS—On September 28, St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church located at 13360 Valleyheart Dr, in Sherman Oaks, was vandalized for the fourth time in two months. Due to the tagging on the statue of St. Francis at the front of the Church, the Los Angeles Police Department is treating the most recent incident as a hate crime.
Canyon News reached out to the Pastor of St. Francis de Sales for more information. Father Mike Wakefield responded with a copy of his statement below and the photos included in this article.
“Recent Vandalism
Four events occurred in the last two months that I find very unsettling and disturbing. Each of these events took place at night. Here are the dates each incident was discovered in the light of day.
Wednesday, August 7, the statue of St. Francis de Sales in front of the main door of the church was vandalized with yellow paint. In addition, something was placed on the top of the concrete base and set afire.
Friday, August 16, the window at the front porch of the rectory was set on fire.
Friday, September 20 the statue of St. Francis de Sales was vandalized again, this time with “chomo” written in black spray paint. Chomo is a slang term for child molester.
Saturday, September 28th, the statue was vandalized again with black spray paint.
Each of these incidents was promptly reported to the Van Nuys Division of the LAPD. Officers were here to take a report the first, third, and fourth time. With the second incident, the police officers called the arson investigators to examine the incident onsite. The third act of vandalism with “chomo” written on the statue is being treated by the LAPD as a hate crime.
Roberto, bless him, spent much time painstakingly cleaning the paint and burned residue off the marble of St. Francis de Sales. Once the statue was cleaned it suffered another paint assault.
To me, our statues or any religious images are not merely marble or plaster or paint.
They take our attention and direct our thoughts to the holy person they represent. In our Catholic lives defacing a statue or religious image is an assault on that holy person, an act of desecration. In addition, St. Francis de Sales is the patron saint of our parish and represents our parish. An assault on St. Francis de Sales Church is an attack on you, my parish family. An attack on our parish raises me to come to its defense.
I am in the process of having additional security cameras installed. As any number of business owners will agree, security cameras do not prevent vandalism. They may help deter vandalism and are the best we can do in hopes of identifying the assailant/s.
The burning of the rectory window frightens me. The fire burned through from the outside bottom right corner to the inside corner scorching the venetian-blinds on the inside. The fire seemingly burned itself out before doing any further damage. The rectory could have easily caught fire. I attribute this deliverance from a house fire to the care of the all-holy Mother of God and my guardian angel.
I invite you to join me in praying for justice and [an] end to these assaults on our church property and to pray for the tortured souls that do such vandalism.”
Those interested in donating to St. Francis de Sales may find the link to donate through Faith Direct on the Church’s website.
Those who may have seen something or have more information on the identity of the vandals are encouraged to call LAPD Van Nuys Station located at 6240 Sylmar Avenue, in Van Nuys at (818) 374-9500
By Sharon