A young man faced charges following vandalism to a memorial garden outside a Catholic primary school in Rockdale, Australia.
“I never thought something like this would happen here,” Father Yacub Barkat, the local parish priest, said after the November 2 incident. “This is a peaceful area, where we respect each other’s beliefs.”
“Any attack on a place of worship is deeply troubling, because these places exist for prayer and peace, solace and sanctuary,” said a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Sydney.