HARTFORD — Vandals struck St. Leo Church in Hartford July 13, knocking over exterior statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary and an angel.
The impact caused the Blessed Virgin Mary’s head to break off from the statue’s body. It was the third act of vandalism in the church in 18 months. On Feb. 23, 2023, the church’s marquee sign was defaced, removing the “M” from the word Mass and adding sexually explicit epithets. On March 10, a vandal spray-painted a racial slur on the exterior door to the church sacristy.
“My husband found the statues on the ground on July 14,” Mary Radley, a lifelong parishioner and director of religious education, said. “It took two men to lift the cement statues to an upright position. We notified the Hartford police about all three acts of vandalism, and the case is under investigation.”
The vandalism has upset the parish of 40 families, who are looking forward to a 125th parish anniversary celebration in 2026.
“St. Leo’s is the oldest Catholic church west of the Mississippi in continuous operation without a resident priest or pastor,” Radley said.
Hartford, located 30 miles south of Fort Smith and four miles from the Oklahoma border, was a coal mining town, and in 1901 the local coal mine donated the land for a church to minister to the Italian immigrant miners. It was several decades before the church was completed in its present form, concluding with the addition of plumbing and bathrooms in the late 1970s.
It is a historic landmark, and air vents that allowed the miners to breathe are still on the church floor and in the parking lot.
Pastor Father Joseph Chan said the parish serves several rural communities in Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma.
“We have four text groups in our parish to keep everyone connected,” he said.
Radley said, “We have filed with our insurance company to see how much money we will have to repair the damage. The diocese is also involved. On the first Saturday of every month, we meet for Mass, devotions, the rosary, Benediction and the sacrament of the sick. Afterwards, we work around the church, vacuuming, dusting, mopping and sweeping, ending with brunch. When we meet in August, we will discuss repairs or replacement.”
“All parishes should have some sort of safeguards against vandalism,” Father Chan said, “but because it is the work of evil, prayer is the best antidote. Each Sunday we pray to Jesus and Mary and recite the Prayer of St. Michael at the close of Mass. Christ conquers evil.”
He also spoke of the need for forgiveness, noting that the perpetrators also suffer and may never recover from the effects of what they did. He told KFSM-TV, “The church is, I think, a forgiving church, and we pray more for the perpetrator than what’s going on. We maintain our hope, and we just need to do the right thing. Hopefully, what happened to us will strengthen our faith and also will evangelize and convert whoever did this to the church and for all churches for that matter.”
Father Chan hopes that anti-Catholic violence will not escalate.
“Statues are sacramentals that lead us to Jesus, but they can be replaced, but lives cannot be replaced,” he said.
