Churches vandalised in Argentina

Buenos Aires – Another two churches were vandalised over the past few days in Argentina, which has seen at least five incidents of destruction and defacement in houses of worship in less than two months, authorities said Tuesday.

The assailants caused material damage and tried to set fire to the Me! thodist Church of Buenos Aires.

“The most important thing they ruined was an 1832 organ that they destroyed and trampled on seven of the organ pipes,” said Eduardo Mariani, the church’s pastor.

Mariani said the criminals “prepared to set three fires” with wood they ripped from the floor and paper they piled in the baptismal font and in the base of the organ, but “which they happily failed to light because they got scared away or something happened”.

“It’s obvious there are some small anti-religious groups because this isn’t something that’s only happening to Methodists,” the pastor said.

Also vandalised last week was the Catholic Church of San Antonio de Padua in Capilla del Monte, some 700 km west of here.

The attackers set fire to the doors and a confessional of the church, destroyed an altar, shattered a statue of Christ and made off with several images of saints.

In the past 45 days, another three churches were victims of vandal! ism in the cities of Mar del Plata, Rosario and Buenos Aires.

Th! e most shocking case for many was perpetrated by students from a prestigious Buenos Aires prep school in the Church of San Ignacio de Loyola, the oldest in the city, where they scribbled the walls with anti-religious slogans and left a trail of destruction.