Department of Justice investigates vandalism at California Catholic school

Federal officials are investigating after a Los Angeles-area Catholic school was targeted in a major act of vandalism that included the beheading of a statue of the Blessed Mother.

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said on X on Feb. 2 that the Department of Justice’s civil rights division “will open an investigation into [the] awful crime” against Holy Innocents Catholic School in Long Beach.

Cyril Cruz, the principal of the school, told EWTN News that she came into the school early on the morning of Feb. 2 and discovered the vandalism in the hall where the school holds Mass.

“Our statue of the Virgin Mary was smashed, and the tabernacle was removed and thrown to the floor in an apparent attempt to force it open,” she said. “The atrium lovingly prepared by the Carmelite Sisters for our scholars was completely destroyed.”

“Audio equipment and lighting were ripped from the walls, speakers and instruments loaded onto carts, and the missals our students use daily were soaked and ruined.”

Photos shared with EWTN News showed the vandalization in multiple rooms, including the destroyed statue, overturned shelves, scattered papers and Mass materials, and other scenes of destruction.

Cruz said Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Marc Trudeau was scheduled to hold a reparation Mass at the school on Feb. 3.

The pastor of Holy Innocents Catholic Church and School, Father Peter Irving, was also scheduled to lead a Eucharistic procession around the school “as we entrust our community to Christ and respond with prayer, faith, and hope.”

Irving told EWTN News that the community was “very sad,” though they were “very grateful” that the Blessed Sacrament was “not violated,” he said.

“The tabernacle was not breached although it was left damaged,” he said. “Investigators said that this was the worst desecration that they have seen.”

The vandalism has received national media coverage. A GoFundMe campaign, meanwhile, had raised nearly $76,000 by the morning of Feb. 3.

That campaign said Trudeau described the incident as “the worst case of vandalism that he’s ever seen in the region.”

Still, Cruz said, amid the destruction, “our community came together — scholars, families, and Knights of Columbus — to clean, restore, and prepare the hall so that Mass could once again be celebrated.”

“Yesterday, our school community gathered in prayer to pray the rosary for healing and also for the conversion and mercy for those who committed this act,” she added.

“We are grateful no one was physically harmed, and we are responding as a faith community with prayer, reparation, and trust in Christ,” she said.

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