Washington D.C., Jul 7, 2021 / 18:01 pm
A statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in front of Catholic church in Asheville, North Carolina was vandalized and restored this past weekend.
“Sadly, when we arrived for Mass on Sunday morning, we discovered that someone had defaced our widely revered statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” said Father Roger Arnsparger, pastor of the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Asheville, in a statement.
The statue, which stands in front of the basilica, “has greeted westbound motorists on I-240 in Asheville for decades,” he said. The seven-foot statue was splashed with red paint from the neck down to the base.
“The statue features Jesus with arms outstretched and the image of a heart upon His chest, representing Christ’s love for all of humanity,” Arnsparger wrote.