Posted December 4, 2008

By Lou Baldwin
Special to The CS&T

LINFIELD – Thanksgiving is the one day of the year when Americans as a nation give thanks to God. It is ironic that a vandal or vandals chose this particular day to express hatred of God by spray-painting a church sign with obscenities.

On Thanksgiving, when Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Parish staff arrived to open the Linfield church for morning Mass, it was discovered that anti-God profanities had been sprayed on the approximately four-by-six-foot illuminated sign.

The sign usually carries a quotation from Mother Teresa. At the time it read “The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion.”

“Though this act is unsettling, as pastor I am impressed that Mother Teresa’s words still have such power 11 years after her death,” said Father Paul C. Brandt, pastor of Blessed Teresa.

The Linfield church, formerly St. Clare’s, is now used mostly for daily Masses, holiday Masses, wedding and funerals. Most weekend liturgies are celebrated at Blessed Teresa’s new Education Center in Limerick.

The vandalism at Blessed Teresa was the only such incident reported that day, according to Sgt. Ed Ciaciak of the Limerick Police Department, and is the only church vandalism in that area in his memory.

Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo Parish and a freelance writer.