Priests who experienced church desecrations firsthand address how best to react

Two priests who experienced firsthand recent acts of desecration at the Medjugorje Shrine and a Mexican parish have addressed the issue of how Catholics should best respond to such acts.

Father Manuel Navarro, a priest of the Archdiocese of Madrid, Spain, was at the renowned Marian shrine on the night of July 27–28 when the Polish national Bartłomiej Włodzimierz Krakowiak allegedly vandalized a statue of the Virgin Mary and set fire to an outdoor altar located next to the local parish church.

“We were all shocked because we didnʼt know why it had happened,” Navarro explained in an interview with EWTN News, describing how images and videos began reaching him that morning.

Despite the emotional impact, the priest highlighted how “within minutes and hours, volunteers from the Cenacolo Community, along with pilgrim volunteers, set about cleaning and clearing everything away,” allowing devotional activities to proceed normally by that afternoon.

When asked how to respond to such attacks, Navarro said he felt the statement released by the parish that day rightly identified three key elements: prayer, fasting, and forgiveness.

“First, prayer for all those who commit attacks”…