Pink Chalk and Broken Faith: A Statue's Story

In the quiet of the night, someone took a piece of pink chalk and drew on a statue of the Virgin Mary. This statue stands outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston's South End. The drawing was not clear, just some scribbles that no one could understand. It happened between 8 p. m. Wednesday and 7 a. m. Thursday. A police officer came to look at it, but they did not call it a hate crime. This is not the first time something like this has happened. In 2020, someone set fire to a Virgin Mary statue in Dorchester. Around the same time, someone threw a garbage can at another statue of the Virgin Mary in the same area. In 2023, a man from Attleboro was caught damaging a statue of Jesus outside the same cathedral. He climbed up on it and broke its arms. A city councilor named Ed Flynn saw what happened and shared a picture of the vandalized statue on social media. He said it was like other things that had happened in New York and Florida. He asked the Boston Police to look into it as a hate crime. But the police report did not say it was a hate crime. Why does this keep happening? Is it just kids being kids, or is there something more going on? It's hard to say. But one thing is clear: these statues are not just pieces of art. They mean something to a lot of people. And when someone draws on them or breaks them, it's not just the statue that gets hurt.