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Virgin Mary statue vandalized; city councilor calls for hate crime investigation
A statue of the Virgin Mary outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End was defaced with pink chalk.
A statue of the Virgin Mary outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross was defaced with graffiti in the South End this week, prompting a Boston city councilor to call for the incident to be investigated as a hate crime.
Councilor Ed Flynn posted an image of the vandalized statue on social media, comparing it to similar incidents in other states and writing that he contacted the Boston Police Department about the matter.
A BPD officer responded to the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Washington Street just before 9 a.m. Thursday, according to a police report. They were told that the statue was defaced sometime between 8 p.m. Wednesday night and 7 a.m. Thursday morning.
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The graffiti was made using pink chalk and contained “illegible religious ramblings,” an officer wrote in the police report.
The report does not list the incident as a possible hate crime.
In 2020, a Virgin Mary statue at Saint Peter Parish in Dorchester was set on fire, prompting an arson investigation. Around the same time, someone threw a garbage can over the statue of the Virgin Mary at Saint Teresa of Calcutta Church in Dorchester.
In 2023, an Attleboro man was arrested for damaging a statue of Jesus Christ on the crucifix outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. He allegedly climbed up on the statue, dangling from it and breaking its arms.
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