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Posted on 01/03/2006 10:49:19 AM PST by A.A. Cunningham
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http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-convent03.html
January 3, 2006 BY GARY WISBY Staff Reporter
A religious order's plans to build a community in rural McHenry County were greeted with heated opposition from neighbors before approval was granted last summer.
But even they were shocked by what vandals did to statues of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary at the Fraternite Notre Dame monastery on New Year's Eve.
Someone spray-painted "Killer," "KKK," "666," "Go away" and "Leave" on the figures. They wrote an obscene message in snow at the base of one statue and stole an American flag.
"It breaks our heart," Sister Mary Valerie said Monday. She is one of a half-dozen priests and nuns who moved into the monastery on the 65-acre site near Marengo last August.
They discovered the damage after returning early Sunday from an all-night prayer vigil at the order's mother house, at 502 N. Central in Chicago. Although that is in a "very bad" part of the Austin neighborhood, in five years nobody has touched the statue out front, Valerie said. "They don't treat us the way they do out in the country," she said.
On Dec. 2, the Marengo monastery's mailbox was uprooted and replaced with a stop sign. The order said nothing to authorities. But officials reported the latest incident, and McHenry County sheriff's police are investigating.
Last March the order sought the county's permission to build a monastery, convent, cemetery, print shop and bakery on the property. Neighbors objected at public hearings, but the McHenry County Board approved the plan.
Neighbors appalled
"I was one of the more vocal opponents," said longtime resident Robert Cisneros. He cited fears that the community's commercial ventures will lower property values and change the character of the area, consisting mostly of farms and estate homes. "It will stand out like a sore thumb," he said.
But when he heard about the desecration, Cisneros and his wife visited the monastery Sunday "to lend a little support and tell them this was certainly not the mind-set of the neighborhood," he said. "Everyone I spoke to was just appalled by what happened."
County Board member Tina Hill of Woodstock said she hoped the culprits were "kids," not adults offended by the order's presence. "This is not the way we want our county to be known," she said.
'KKK,' 'Go away' painted on religious statues
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Vandals hit suburban monastery
Fraternite Notre Dame, best known in the region for its work with the poor on the West Side of Chicago, was founded in France in 1971 in a break from the Roman Catholic Church. It celebrates the Latin mass at its Church of Our Lady of Frechou at 502 N. Central Ave. in the city's Austin neighborhood.
Now based in New York City, where it is registered as a not-for-profit organization, the order has missions around the world that minister to the poor.
(excerpt)
Officials said vandals spray-painted "Leave," "KKK," and "666," among other messages on statues of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ at the Fraternite Notre Dame monastery on New Year's Eve.
Additional photos here.
I'm sure a CVS or Walgreens would have been just fine for the protestors.
Though this is definitely an attack against ALL who are Catholic, it should be clarified that this "fraternite" was founded by an "Old Catholic" bishop who was conditionally-reconsecrated by Archbishop Thuc of Vietnam. It isn't immediately clear where they stand on the validity of the past few popes.
Monks or not, they need to be armed. And practice. And leave one or two people behind next time they go downtown for a prayer vigil.
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