Nuns Say Statues Desecrated Again

Nuns Say Statues Desecrated Again

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Members of a Catholic monastery in McHenry County are grieving the desecration of sacred statues for the second time in one week.

When Sister Mary Valerie returned to the monastery from an all-night prayer service Sunday, vandals had spray-painted “KKK,” “666” and other obscenities on statues of Jesus and the virgin Mary.

Then yesterday, those same statues were damaged again, this time by an apparently well-intentioned graffiti removal team from Cook County.

But Sister Mary says the gesture was an unwelcome one.

Sister Mary says the cleaning chemicals further damaged the fiberglass statues. She estimates it will cost about $4,000 to replace them.

Authorities say they’re treating Sunday’s spray-paint attack as a hate crime.

They have a number of leads but no suspects in the case.