Vandals have attacked a Catholic cathedral in California, defacing it with swastikas, pentagrams and a range of political slogans including “Biden 2020” and “Black Lives Matter.”
St. Peter’s Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in El Cajon, California said in a statement on Facebook that it had fallen victim to a graffiti attack. Video footage posted by the cathedral showed numerous symbols and slogans spray-painted on the building.
Nazi slogans including swastikas and “White Power" could be seen alongside upside down crosses, “BLM,” and “Biden 2020.” Some of the graffiti was indecipherable, while some of the slogans represented opposed ideologies, raising question marks about the motivation for the attack.
In a magnanimous message, the church urged its congregation to pray for the perpetrators of the defilement as well as for Christians in Iraq. “This morning our beloved Cathedral was defaced with pentagrams, upside down crosses, white power, swastikas, BLM, etc. It reminds us to pray for my brethren in Iraq that are facing persecution. Pray for the criminals who did this,” it said.
The incident is the latest in a string of attacks at Catholic churches in the United States in recent months. Earlier this week, a church in Florida fell victim to an arson attack, while in Texas, a man armed with a baseball bat damaged icons at a seminary.
The Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Church headquartered in Baghdad. Its following has grown in the US in recent decades amid an influx of immigrants from the Middle East.
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