Vandalism shocks Kailua church
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward Bureau
KAILUA — Vandals weren't satisfied with destroying a statue of St. Anthony that had stood for years at the corner of Makawao Street and North Kalaheo Avenue.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
When they left, they took the statue's head.
Vandals last week knocked a statue of St. Anthony off a pedestal outside St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church in Kailua. The act broke the statue into three pieces, causing the head of baby Jesus, whom St. Anthony was shown cradling, to be separated from the main statue. In addition, the head of St. Anthony was taken from the scene.
It was the second case of vandalism of a church statue on O'ahu in as many months.
"It's always horrifying when they do it to the church," said the Rev. Deacon Clarence DeCaires of St. Anthony's Church, noting that the facility is in a quiet neighborhood where church property is respected. "It shocked everybody."
A parishioner arriving at 4:30 a.m. to set up for Friday morning Mass at St. Anthony's discovered the life-size figure lying on its side, broken into three pieces, said DeCaires.
The crime, classified by police as criminal property damage in the second degree, took place between 9:30 p.m. Thursday, when the last meeting at the facility ended, and 4:30 Friday morning.
The Catholic church is in a residential neighborhood, with its school to one side and other church buildings across from its entrance.
"The closest house to our property is a vacation rental, and I think at the time it was empty," DeCaires said.
Neighbors said they didn't see anything suspicious, he said.
DeCaires said it appeared that several people were involved or a car was used because the statue was too heavy to be moved by one person. The $5,000 figure, donated by the Cassidy family, was anchored to a granite pedestal by an iron rod that ran through the statue. The pedestal alone took four big men to move, he said.
"The strange part is we're missing the head," DeCaires said, adding that any chance of repairing the figure is destroyed with the head gone.
Another statue was smashed at St. Augustine Church in Waikiki on May 13. Police said the two incidents are unrelated. In the St. Augustine incident, it appeared that a homeless person jumped a fence and smashed the statue with a pipe, police said.
Both cases are under investigation.
