6/30/05 Faithful arrive to find satanic messages at parish

Faithful arrive to find satanic messages at parish
Vandals break doors, spray-paint symbols on walls

By Jozannah Quintanilla KRIS 6 NEWS
June 30, 2005

Members of St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church arrived at the parish for a Tuesday morning Mass to find broken doors and satanic symbols spraypainted on the walls.

"I'm always shocked that anybody would choose to vandalize any place, much less a church," said youth minister Danny Kollaja. "To me, that's devil worship signs. That's Satan."

One of the messages spray-painted on a wall said "preach faith, not hate." That's something Kollaja says the church does on a daily basis. "We do anything but preach hate," he said.

The vandals also threw two bricks at the church, located at 3513 Cimarron Road. One of them broke the church's front door. The bricks also had spray-painted messages. One made reference to the church being unfair to the poor. The other brick had a message that read "unlock these doors to let the lies out and the faith in."

Church officials say the damage will be costly. The doors must be stripped and repainted, and the church is looking for ways to get blue paint off a marble statue of St. Philip that stands in front of the church.

"It makes me feel sad and disappointed that people would do this to a church where we do much good for so many," said parishioner Margaret Moyniham.

Corpus Christi police say they don't have any suspects in this case. They ask that anyone with information call Crime Stoppers at 886-8477.