The Brewster Police Department said in a Nov. 16 statement that the two fires remain under investigation. The police have not announced any suspects.
Brewster PD Chief Marcos Ruiz declined to comment further to CNA, adding that the department does not have plans to release additional information on the active investigation.
The Diocese of Spokane requested prayers for the Sacred Heart community in a tweet on Sunday. The diocese did not comment further by press time.
Numerous attacks on Catholic churches and art in the U.S. have been documented throughout 2020- including three separate desecrations of Marian statues in the same weekend in July.
At least three vandalism attacks have happened against images of Mary this year in New York City alone.
The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver was defaced with graffiti during a protest June 1, with rioters spray-painting slogans such as "GOD IS DEAD" and "PEDOFILES" [sic] on the church's exterior.
A statue of the Virgin Mary was beheaded in Gary the evening of July 2 or morning of July 3.
On July 11, a man was arrested after he reportedly admitted to crashing a minivan into Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Ocala, Florida, and then setting it on fire while parishioners were inside. No one was injured.
Also on July 11, a 249-year-old California mission founded by St. Junipero Serra burned in a fire being investigated as arson.
The same day, a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was attacked and beheaded at a parish in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Three days later, vandals beheaded a statue of Christ outside Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Southwest Miami-Dade County, the same day that a statue of the Blessed Virgin at St. Mary's Cathedral in Colorado Springs was tagged with red paint in an act of vandalism.
At Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Bloomingburg, New York, a monument to unborn children killed by abortion was knocked over the weekend of July 18.
In late August, vandals beheaded a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Holy Family Parish in Citrus Heights, California. A statue of the Ten Commandments, placed at the parish "in dedication to all those who have lost their life through abortion" was grafittied with a swastika.
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In September, a man went on an hours-long vandalism spree at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Tioga, Louisiana, breaking at least six windows, beating several metal doors, and breaking numerous statues around the parish grounds. He was later arrested and charged.
The same month, vandals toppled a statue of St. Therese outside St. Therese of the Child Jesus Catholic Parish in Midvale, Utah.
Later in September, a man was charged for smashing a 90-year-old statue of Christ inside St. Patrick Cathedral in El Paso.
Also in September, a man wielded a baseball bat on the grounds of a Catholic seminary in Texas and damaged a crucifix and several doors, but caused no harm to seminary students.
St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in El Cajon on Sept. 25 was defaced with graffiti depicting "pentagrams, upside down crosses, white power, swastikas," as well as slogans such as "Biden 2020," and "BLM".
The same evening, Our Mother of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, also in El Cajon, was similarly attacked, with the pastor discovering spray-painted swastikas on an exterior wall of the church the next day.
In mid-October, vandals knocked down a statue of Mary and a statue of Christ outside St. Germaine Catholic Church in Prescott Valley, Arizona, about 90 miles north of Phoenix.
Throughout the summer, numerous depictions of St. Junipero Serra, mostly in California, have been forcibly pulled down by mobs of protestors.