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Vandalism at Catholic shrine may bring charges for Mormon missionaries

By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published March 11, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.

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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

  • March 11, 2008

    8:43 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    joeblow writes:

    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.

  • March 11, 2008

    9:25 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    CWW writes:

    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.

  • March 11, 2008

    10:01 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Tito_of_Custos_Fidei writes:

    That was funny nonetheless.

  • March 11, 2008

    10:12 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    will777 writes:

    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.

  • March 11, 2008

    10:26 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Spencer writes:

    South Park has a great episode explaining the beginnings of the Mormon Church. Should be used in history classes.

  • March 11, 2008

    1:33 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Spencer writes:

    no GWM, Comedy Channel. They did a great episode on Scientology too. Got the studio in trouble with Tom Cruise.