CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2020 / 10:00 am
The altar of Christ the King parish in Gothenburg, Sweden, was vandalized on Friday, Nov. 13, in an act that the pastor believes was intentionally symbolic.
Fr. Tobias Unnerstål arrived at his church to find that the pulpit had been overturned and the altar completely stripped. Hymnals were cleared from the shelves and chairs had been thrown off the sanctuary. A wreath and plaque with a commemoration of those who died this year was also vandalized.
"I wonder if the culprit knows much about Christian symbolism. Because what has been done is very specific," Fr. Unnerstål told ACI Stampa, CNA's Italian language news partner.
"We ourselves remove everything from the altar once a year and it is before Good Friday. It is as if he wanted to create an eternal Good Friday, the worst thing you can imagine for a believer," he said.