San Diego Catholic Churches Vandalized With Swastikas, Targets Of Religious And Political Graffiti

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department were called to two Catholic churches in California over the weekend that were vandalized with images of swastikas, and religious and political graffiti cartoons

Fox 5 San Diego reported that Father Daniel Shaba found St. Peter’s Chaldean Catholic Cathedral was defaced with swastikas and other graffiti on Saturday morning.

Shaba took to Twitter to share a video of the damaged property. “I woke up this morning to see our Cathedral defaced with pentagrams, upside down crosses, white power, swastikas, BLM, etc.,” he wrote in the caption of the photo.

“It reminded me to pray for my brethren in Iraq that are facing persecution. Pray for the criminals who did this.”

Later on, Shaba shared another video of what appeared to be several men using spray paint to damage the exterior of the church.

Shaba told the publication that he is a bit unclear about the motives behind the vandalism on his church. “It’s very confusing when you saw the graffiti because it had things that didn’t have much to do with each other,” he said.

However, Shabab revealed that the community has rallied around the church and has shown their support. “Right now, what we are telling the community to do is to pray for more peace in the world, first and foremost,” he stated.

“But, also the repentance of these people that decided to do this to the church.”

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that deputies dealt with a similar vandalism incident at Our Mother of Perpetual Help Catholic Church. The church was reportedly defaced on Saturday with several images including swastikas.

Since there is an ongoing investigation into both incidents, authorities have not released further information on the cases.