Catholic Parish wants LDS missionaries charged.

All I can say is, "Jerks."

Deseret Morning News | Parish angered by 3 LDS missionaries

Quote:

Parish angered by 3 LDS missionaries Associated Press Published: March 10, 2008 SAN LUIS, Colo. — Members of the Sangre de Christo parish of the Roman Catholic Church voted Sunday to pursue criminal charges against three Mormon missionaries who allegedly vandalized a shrine and committed sacrilegious acts in the church. Although the incidents occurred in 2006, they only came to the attention of the parish when they were seen on the Internet site "Photobucket." Alonzo Payne, a parishioner and lawyer, said he was asking the Costilla County Sheriff to pursue charges on behalf of the parish. Sheriff's Cpl. Scott Powell told the Pueblo Chieftain the men, who were not identified, could face up to six charges, including felonies for criminal mischief and conspiracy. Robert Fotheringham, in charge of the LDS Church's missionary program in parts of four states, and whose region includes the San Luis Valley, declined to release names of the missionaries. He confirmed the three seen in the photos, which have been removed from the Internet, were Mormon missionaries. He said they would be disciplined, though he declined to go into detail. "We're just mortified this has happened. This is not what we're about," he said. The Internet photos showed the three vandalizing the Shrine of the Mexican Martyrs in 2006 and mocking the Roman Catholic faith. One missionary was seen holding the severed head of a statue. The head was found and restored. Another photo showed a missionary appearing to preach from the Book of Mormon inside the Chapel of All Saints. A third showed one missionary pretending to sacrifice another on the altar at the Shrine of the Mexican Martyrs. Members of the parish built the shrine. No damage estimate was available. "What they did was extremely imprudent, extremely uncharitable and inflammatory," the Rev. Pat Valdez told parishioners at a meeting Friday night. "You have worked hard, and this whole community has worked hard to build that shrine as an expression of our faith." Fotheringham, meanwhile, met with parishioners to deliver a written apology from one of the three missionaries, signed by an R. Thompson. "I realize that my companions and I have made a mockery of that which is most sacred to many of the residents of San Luis and the rest of the world. I should have known better because I have seen many of the same types of blasphemies made against my own church and I have been appalled," the statement said.     Some Followup: LDS Church apologizes to Catholics Missionaries may face legal, church sanctions Deseret Morning News and Associated Press Published: March 11, 2008 The LDS Church issued a strongly worded statement Monday apologizing to the Roman Catholic Church for the actions of some of its missionaries in Colorado. "Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were dismayed this weekend to learn of the insensitivity and disrespect shown to religious artifacts of the Sangre de Cristo Catholic Church in San Luis, Colorado, and that Latter-day Saint missionaries were evidently responsible during their missionary service in 2006," said Bruce Olsen, managing director of the church's public affairs department. "Their actions do not represent the high standards of behavior for which our missionaries are known all over the world." Photos that had been posted on the Internet showed three LDS missionaries mocking a Catholic shrine and holding the broken head of a statue of a saint there, a Catholic official said. Costilla County Sheriff Gilbert Martinez said deputies on Monday were beginning to investigate whether the men vandalized the Shrine of the Mexican Martyrs at the Chapel of All Saints, which stands on a butte overlooking San Luis. The photos show young men holding the broken head of a statue, preaching from the Book of Mormon at an altar and pretending to sacrifice one another. The vandalism apparently occurred in 2006, though damage to the statue went unnoticed until last week, when a parish member saw the photos on the picture-sharing Internet site Photobucket. They have since been taken down. Olsen said the LDS Church has initiated a "thorough investigation" of the incident and has arranged for a meeting with Catholic leaders to offer apologies. "We are providing the names of those involved to law enforcement officials and will continue to cooperate fully with those investigating the incident as well as with officials of the Roman Catholic Church. Those missionaries who have since returned home will face disciplinary action from the church," the statement read. "The missionary who was still serving in Colorado has also been disciplined and his mission terminated." "The community is sad; it feels they've been victimized," Sangre de Cristo Parish Council spokesman Alonzo Payne said Monday. The parish has nine churches and about 450 families across Costilla County. The damaged statue seen in one of the photos depicts Manuel Morales, who was the 28-year-old president of Mexico's National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty when he was executed in 1926 for refusing to recognize laws he considered anti-religion. He was among more than two dozen Mexican saints canonized in 2000. The broken head had gone unnoticed because it had been placed back on the statue. The parish council, based near the New Mexico border in San Luis, voted Sunday to ask for the investigation. The sheriff said charges could include desecration of a venerated object, criminal trespass, defacing property and bias-motivated crime. Payne would not rule out a lawsuit seeking the cost of replacing or repairing the statue. The Rev. Patrick Valdez, the parish pastor, referred questions to Payne. Olsen called the missionaries' actions "inexcusable" and said respect for other faiths is a "cardinal tenet" of the LDS Church. "The church has worked for many years side by side with leaders and members of other faiths, including the Roman Catholic Church, and has often helped them with construction or renovation of buildings for religious worship. We have also worked hand-in-hand with Catholic Charities in providing humanitarian assistance to alleviate suffering across the globe," he said. "The church expresses its profound regret and sincere apologies to the members of the Roman Catholic faith, to the members of the Sangre de Cristo Catholic Church and the townspeople of San Luis, for this senseless act." Olsen said church leaders would look for ways to repair the damage that has been caused to relationships with the community. Photobucket released a statement saying that it had no record of the shrine photos but that its rules forbid content that is illegal, obscene or threatening. © 2008 Deseret News Publishing Company | All rights reserved

Kirby: You're called by God, but still an idiot

Robert Kirby
Tribune columnist
Article Last Updated: 03/14/2008 09:35:40 PM MDT


Years ago, my roommates and I got into a water fight with a bunch of kids. The day was brain-damage hot. Getting soaked was a refreshing break from the drudgery of our work.
The fight started innocently enough. The kids knocked on the door of our apartment and squirted us. It became an immediate arms race: squirt guns, then cups, on to jugs, from there to hoses, and finally total annihilation.
Going for the big win, my roommates and I hauled a garbage can onto the roof filled with the most noxious stuff we could find: spoiled milk, syrup, laundry detergent, rotting vegetables, dead rat, moldy flour, etc.
It took three of us to lug it to the edge of the roof. To avoid being spotted from below, we guessed where the kids were and upended the garbage can.
We missed the kids and hit some lady walking her dog. The deluge of muck knocked her flat and almost drowned her dog.
A number of things were terribly wrong with this incident, not the least of which was that the poor woman didn't deserve it.
Also, my roommates and I were LDS missionaries, personal representatives of Jesus Christ. Nothing we had been taught indicated that the Savior endorsed knocking down old ladies with buckets of swill.
The woman was in no mood for an apology. When we tried to help, she shook us off and shrieked for everyone to come and see what the awful Mormons had done to her.
Half of the ensuing crowd was sympathetic to her plight, the other half found it hysterically funny. The laughter made her all the madder.
We prepared ourselves for a long stretch in a South American jail but the cops never came. We still had to live it down, though. For weeks, people in the town scolded or congratulated us for what we'd done.
I'd like to say this is the only untoward public stunt of my entire mission. It isn't.
During my mission we had elders thrown in jail for blithely taking pictures of military installations.
Some got arrested for saying things about the government they shouldn't have. One hit a nun in the head with a football. Another killed a family's chicken with a karate chop. A couple got shot when they ran an army roadblock in the dark.
So, it doesn't surprise me that three LDS missionaries are in trouble in Colorado now for a juvenile prank that violated a Catholic shrine. What surprises me is that it doesn't happen more often. We are, after all, talking about kids.
I was 19 once myself. I helped raise three 19-year-olds. I know that being 19 makes a person only slightly smarter than a hound dog. The human brain doesn't even stop developing until 25.
Going on a mission doesn't change any of that. You may be called by God, but you're still an idiot. The only difference is a huge increase in the responsibility, so you have to let it show as little as possible.
I'm not saying that the missionaries in Colorado shouldn't be in trouble, or that they shouldn't have to take their lumps. For people like me, that's actually the fastest way to become smarter.
I do think we should look on the bright side though. With 50,000-plus kids serving missions in some pretty scary places, it's a miracle that international incidents aren't daily occurrences.
rkirby@sltrib.com