Vandals smash statues at Our Lady of Sorrows Church on Lower East Side

NEW YORK -- There were solemn prayers on the Lower East Side on Tuesday at a vandalized shrine behind a Catholic church.

As CBS2's Tony Aiello reports, Timothy Cardinal Dolan joined parishioners to express his sorrow and support.

Our Lady of Sorrows has changed with the city. It was a German parish, then Italian, and now Hispanic, but always, a devotion to the Virgin Mary and saying the rosary.

Three years ago, parishioners fixed up the shrine to Our Lady of Fatima, featuring statues of three children Catholics believe Mary communicated with in 1917.

On May 17, one or more vandals struck under cover of darkness. Two of the statues were beheaded.

"A violation, you know. And it was really, it was very scary, and the thing was, it was interesting, they destroyed the statues of the children but they left the Virgin Mary alone.," said Tom McNamara, a priest at Our Lady of Sorrows Church.

"The community, very, very, very sad. We can't believe that people can do that something to the church," parishioner Mary Torres said.

It upset neighbor Sara Weiner, who is Jewish.

"People come here and stand to pray. And I don't get it. I just don't get it. It's evil," she said.

The shrine is surrounded by a high chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. There are no surveillance cameras. The church now wants to install them.

Tuesday night, Cardinal Dolan used a rosary given to him during a recent visit to Ukraine and told parishioners to be the light against the darkness.

"Goodness, truth and beauty are going to have the last word, not evil and viciousness and ugliness and division," he said.

They plan to replace what was destroyed and pray for those responsible.

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• Lower East Side
• Timothy Dolan