Gutless vandals desecrated a nativity scene outside a Queens church, pulling down lights, ornaments and damaging figures of the Baby Jesus and Virgin Mary.
R.C. Church on Goethals Avenue in Jamaica Thursday night left the nativity in shambles, according to a church official and stunned parishioner Walter Ferrer, 55, who has helped set up the holy display for the last three Christmas seasons.
“I’m so sad. This is unthinkable. Especially right after the holiday season,” Ferrer said, choking back tears.“I drove by Thursday night and it was raining and it was fine,” he recalled. However, Father Thomas Joseph, one of the parish priests, said the rowdies returned to the church twice that night to deface the solemn scene, according to a higher authority — surveillance video.“We have a camera in front of the church. It looks like two young guys,” Father Thomas said.
The clergyman said the demonic duo first pulled up in front of the church at 7:53 p.m. Thursday on an electric scooter and then stood in front of the nativity. “One of the guys pulled down the decorations and one hit the plexiglass, Father Thomas said. “Then they left” before returning at 9:45 p.m., this time on separate scooters.
“When they came back, one of the guys left the scooter on the street and went inside the nativity,” the priest said. Church officials discovered the damage — including broken figures of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus — on Friday morning.Ferrer, a native of Peru who came to the US in 1991 and has been a member of the Catholic parish for more than two decades, said helping to set up the nativity each year right after Thanksgiving has been a labor of love.
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