Roman Catholic Church officials in Halifax are still assessing the damage after discovering crude, anti-religion messages and symbols spray-painted on statues and signs in a west-end cemetery.
The damage occurred at Mount Olivet cemetery on Mumford Road, which holds the remains of 25,000 people, sometime between Sunday evening and Monday morning.
The columbarium, which holds cremated remains, was also targeted.
“Mount Olivet has been sacred ground for more than 120 years,” Archbishop Anthony Mancini said in a news release. “It is not only the physical damage done which is upsetting, but the expression of anti-Christian feelings and hate which is most worrisome.”
The cemetery opened in 1896. Victims of the Halifax Explosion and the sinking of the Titanic are among those interred there, and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains 78 graves for Commonwealth service personnel from the two world wars.
“To all who have family and loved ones buried in Mount Olivet, I extend my deep condolences and prayerful support,” Mancini said.
Mancini was not available for an interview, said Aurea Sadi, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth.
She said the spray-painting included anarchist symbols and “misspelled F-bombs” describingreligion.
There were no actual gravestones painted, as far as she was aware. Marble statues, including the crucifix and Virgin Mary, were hit.
The damage covered a wide swath of the cemetery, Sadi said, and she’s not sure what might need replacing and how much work will be involved in the cleanup.
“We’re still in the process of determining what that will look like,” she said. “The statues are marble, and I have never cleaned paint off marble. We’re trying to figure out the best way to clean that stuff up.”
In the meantime, cemetery staff are covering some of the graffiti.
“Families are coming to visit, and that’s a little disheartening and upsetting to see as you come to visit a loved one,” she said.
St. Theresa’s Church on North Street in Halifax was also damaged, with similar symbols found on the doors to the church.
Photos showed the anarchy symbol, along with upside-down crosses.
In incidents earlier this spring, two Catholic churches were hit Easter Sunday with obscene graffiti.
Vandals spray-painted obscene words and drawings on St. Agnes Church, and also hit Saint Benedict Church in the suburb of Clayton Park.
Father James Mallon of Saint Benedict tweeted a picture of the graffiti with the caption, “Someone said to me this week that Christians were not persecuted in our country. This morning we woke up to this.”
With files from the Canadian Press
