Statue, Flower Pots Vandalized At Battle Creek Catholic Church

Police in Battle Creek are attempting to identify and locate a man who was seen vandalizing items on the property of a Catholic Church.

The Battle Creek Enquirer says that around 9pm Sunday, a couple on a motorcycle saw a man at the St. Philip Catholic Church on Capital Ave; he was seen knocking over flower pots, and damaging the arm of a small statue. The statue is of Saint Bernadette, and dates back to the 1940s.

Saint Bernadette was a French woman born in 1844; she claimed to have visions of the Virgin Mary in a grotto, and was canonized in 1933.

When Battle Creek Police responded to the scene, the man was nowhere to be found. The suspect is described as a 30-year-old white man, who had been wearing grey pants, a blue shirt, black jacket and black shoes. He’d been wearing headphones at the time.

Anyone with information about this vandalism should contact the BCPD or Silent Observer.

This is not the first incident of vandalism at a Battle Creek religious institution, or even the first to take place on Capital Ave; the Temple Beth-El synagogue was spray-painted on in January, and that incident happened just a couple of months after a concrete menorah on that building was damaged and chipped at.