{"id":57905,"date":"2025-07-25T07:19:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T07:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/?p=57905"},"modified":"2025-07-25T07:19:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T07:19:50","slug":"fbi-investigates-vandalism-incident-at-pennsylvania-catholic-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/zh\/learn\/fbi-investigates-vandalism-incident-at-pennsylvania-catholic-church\/","title":{"rendered":"\u8054\u90a6\u8c03\u67e5\u5c40\u8c03\u67e5\u5bbe\u5915\u6cd5\u5c3c\u4e9a\u5dde\u5929\u4e3b\u6559\u5802\u7684\u7834\u574f\u4e8b\u4ef6"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Church property sits vandalized at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Sunday, July 19, 2025. \/ Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Pittsburgh<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

CNA Staff, Jul 22, 2025 \/ 12:32 pm (CNA).<\/p>\n

Federal agents are investigating a vandalism incident at a church in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, according to Bishop Mark Eckman.<\/p>\n

Eckman said in a July 19 statement<\/a> that St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, had been desecrated with \u201canti-Catholic and anti-Semitic messages.\u201d <\/p>\n

The vandalism \u201cwounded not only the people of this parish but every member of our diocesan family,\u201d the bishop said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis holy place, meant for prayer, community, and the merciful presence of God has been violated in a deeply painful way,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are leading the inquiry into the incident, the bishop said. <\/p>\n

On Monday the diocese released photos of the vandalism<\/a> \u201cwith the hope that it will prompt someone in the community to come forward with information that may assist investigators in identifying those responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Church
Church property sits vandalized at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Sunday, July 19, 2025. Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Pittsburgh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Images showed a statue of the Virgin Mother spray-painted with a Star of David as well as a door marked with graffiti and a wall tagged with profanity and a swastika.<\/p>\n

The diocese is \u201cheartbroken over this hateful act,\u201d Eckman said on Monday, adding that he was urging the faithful to \u201c[pray] for comfort and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradford Arick, a spokesman for the FBI\u2019s Pittsburgh field office, confirmed to CNA on Tuesday that the agency \u201chas been made aware of the reported vandalism and is investigating.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Family Research Council said in a report last year<\/a> that vandalism against churches \u2014 especially Catholic places of worship \u2014 has increased significantly in the U.S. since 2018.<\/p>\n

Arielle Del Turco, the director of the group\u2019s Center for Religious Liberty, said last year that \u201cour culture is demonstrating a growing disdain for Christianity and core Christian beliefs, and acts of hostility against churches could be a physical manifestation of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Church
Church property sits vandalized at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Sunday, July 19, 2025. Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Pittsburgh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many of those acts of violence appear to have been in response to the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s repeal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, which allowed abortion to be regulated by the states for the first time in decades.<\/p>\n

Then-U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, last year demanded that then-President Joe Biden protect Catholic churches from the \u201cgrowing number of attacks\u201d they suffered in the wake of that repeal. <\/p>\n

A Catholic church in Wichita, Kansas, was vandalized in March<\/a>, including damages to statues and hateful graffiti. President Donald Trump at the time described the incident as \u201cterrible\u201d and vowed that the government would \u201ctake a look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/265487\/fbi-investigates-anti-catholic-and-anti-semetic-vandalism-incident-at-pennsylvania-catholic-church<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Church property sits vandalized at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Sunday, July 19, 2025. \/ Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Pittsburgh CNA Staff, Jul 22, 2025 \/ 12:32 pm (CNA). Federal agents are investigating a vandalism incident at a church in the Diocese of [\u2026]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":58250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-57905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-news"],"mb":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/christianpure.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/FBI-investigates-vandalism-incident-at-Pennsylvania-Catholic-church.webp?fit=800%2C800&quality=75&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":77681,"url":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/zh\/learn\/diocese-of-pittsburgh-7-churches-to-close-next-month\/","url_meta":{"origin":57905,"position":0},"title":"Diocese of Pittsburgh: 7 churches to close next month","author":"Christian Pure Team","date":"2 4 \u6708, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh announced the permanent closure of seven churches, effective March 12.The decision was formally communicated to parishioners during Masses on Feb. 8 at St. Joseph the Worker Parish, where a letter from Bishop Mark A. 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