Father Robert Lathrop blesses a new statue of St. Joseph with the infant Jesus at St. Mary Catholic Church in Sigourney last month.
By Lindsay Steele
The Catholic Messenger
SIGOURNEY — Father Robert Lathrop believes a misunderstanding of Church doctrine contributed to the destruction of three statues at St. Mary Parish in September.
Jacob Vedepo, 39, was charged with criminal mischief second degree (vandalism) after parish staff found broken pieces of the statues of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Mary and St. Joseph strewn on parish grounds.
The parish had recently spent several-thousand dollars on statue refurbishment, said Father Lathrop, pastor of St. Mary Parish and of Holy Trinity Parish-Keota, St. Joseph & Cabrini Parish-Richland and St. Joseph Parish-North English. That made the vandalism even more disheartening, he said.
Father Lathrop visited Vedepo at the Keokuk County Jail shortly after his arrest. The priest recalled Vedepo telling him he committed the crime because Catholics worship statues. Father Lathrop offered God’s forgiveness and explained the Church’s teaching on statues as worship aids, not idols. “It’s a common misconception,” Father Lathrop later told The Catholic Messenger.
Parish staff believe the accused man entered the church before daylight, after the priest had unlocked the church for private worship, and carried the statues outside to destroy them. As a precaution, the church is now locked when unattended, Father Lathrop said.
The three statues — valued at about $9,000 — were not salvageable and discussions with Catholic Mutual Insurance are ongoing, Father Lathrop said. He hoped to find new, similarly sized statues with a “baroque” style to match the other statues in the church. He found statues of St. Mary (standing alone) and St. Joseph with the infant Jesus at Religious Supply Center Inc. in Davenport. Each statue cost about $1,000. Previously, both statues included an infant Jesus. The new St. Mary statue makes it possible for the parish to host May crownings in the future.
“They’re perfect,” Father Lathrop said of the new statues. “I’m glad we found something that was close to the old ones stylistically, but cheaper.” After all, “they’re just statues.”
