Vandalism at Catholic shrine may bring charges for Mormon missionaries
By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
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Police said they will decide by Wednesday whether to press charges against three Mormon missionaries who allegedly vandalized a Catholic shrine in the San Luis Valley.
One of the missionaries working in southern Colorado was dismissed and sent home to Idaho last weekend. The missionaries were seen in photos - apparently taken in August 2006 - at the Shrine of the Mexican Martyrs at the Chapel of All Saints, across the street from Sangre de Cristo parish in San Luis.
The five photos, posted on
Photobucket.com and now removed, include images of one missionary holding a head broken off a statue with the caption "Hannemann broke the head off a saint," said Alonzo Payne, a parishioner and spokesman for Sangre de Cristo, which paid for the shrine.
Another photo shows a missionary apparently preaching from the Book of Mormon at the altar inside the chapel, and a third shows a missionary pretending to sacrifice another.
The parish council voted Sunday to refer the incident to the Costilla County Sheriff's Office, Payne said.
Robert Fotheringham, president of the Colorado Springs Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said that the Idaho missionary was disciplined and sent home. The other two, one from California and the other from Nevada, finished their mission work last summer. Fotheringham would not identify them.
kimm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2361
Comments
Posted by freethought on March 11, 2008 at 8:36 a.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by joeblow on March 11, 2008 at 8:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Perhaps the mission of this trio was to resort to the "old time religion"---you know, the kind where you "pretend" to be respectful of other faiths until you have an opportunity to denigrate and defile it.
Posted by GWM on March 11, 2008 at 9:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
freethought you are quite a poet. Most of your jingle is true, but the LDS folks I know do not cheat nor marry their cousins. I doubt if they would marry into your family either.
Posted by CWW on March 11, 2008 at 9:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Vandalism is a crime, no matter what your beliefs. If they can find the perps, they should be prosecuted and made to fix what they destroyed.
Posted by freethought on March 11, 2008 at 9:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
GWM, I realize that you don't know me or my family, but I do speak from experience. My unmentionable mormon roots run back to the nineteenth century and I can tell you that there is a world of deceit and corruption that runs in my family tree as well as many of the families I knew in my ward. Utah mormons have long had to hide from events in their families past. Why, mormons were chased out of the Eastern U.S. for infractions much greater than practicing their fundamentalist rituals. The Mountain Meadow Massacre is the most famous of these crimes but it is not isolated.
Posted by Tito_of_Custos_Fidei on March 11, 2008 at 10:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
That was funny nonetheless.
Posted by GWM on March 11, 2008 at 10:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
freethought, I can't speak from experience, but are there any religions that do not have a "past"? Even DARK pasts? The Mountain Meadow Massacre came up in these threads a few weeks back. First time I heard about it. Much like Sandcreek or Custer's last stand, or lynchings of blacks in the name of white robed Christians, huh? I can't defend the LDS past, I only see what they are doing today. This vandalism was inexcusable and the boys should face the consequences. It was my opinion that the Mormons were chased out of everyplace they lived because they were becoming wealthy and a powerful political force that scared the locals. No?
Posted by will777 on March 11, 2008 at 10:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm a Mormon and I'm ashamed of what these people did. It is unbelievable that they would do this while claiming to teach about God. Freethought, the Mormons were not driven west because they did anything illegal. The Mountain Meadow's Massacre occurred years after the Mormons were driven West.
Posted by Spencer on March 11, 2008 at 10:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)
South Park has a great episode explaining the beginnings of the Mormon Church. Should be used in history classes.
Posted by GWM on March 11, 2008 at 10:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Spencer, I have never seen South Park. Do they do documentaries ala mmoore and algore? Can that be found on PBS?
Posted by Spencer on March 11, 2008 at 1:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
no GWM, Comedy Channel. They did a great episode on Scientology too. Got the studio in trouble with Tom Cruise.
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