'Denounce Anti-Catholic Incidents': Orgs Call On De Blasio, Cuomo

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Catholic organizations are calling on New York's leaders to denounce anti-Catholic hate crimes following the destruction of two decades-old religious statues outside of a Forest Hills church.

Last weekend, a woman destroyed two statues outside Forest Hills' Our Lady of Mercy church in an incident that the NYPD is investigating as a hate crime, police said.

"The Governor and the Mayor have been very quick to publicly and rightly condemn acts of faith targeting other faiths. However, we can not help but notice the disturbing, deafening silence from both the Mayor and the Governor concerning these heinous acts of hate targeting Catholics," the New York branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) said in a statement first reported by Irish Central.

The AOH, an Irish Catholic organization, called on Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio to condemn "acts of hate targeting people of faith," adding there shouldn't be a "double standard of outrage," alluding to the leaders' silence so far on a recent "spate" of anti-Catholic incidents.

Several other statue-toppling incidents at Catholic churches have happened in the city during the past year, reported Irish Central and the New York Daily News.

While the Governor and Mayor have not yet commented on last weekend's incident in Forest Hills, other Queens-based politicians condemned the vandalism.

"In the Borough of Queens, the most diverse place in our city, we can never accept religious intolerance, we must remain ever vigilant, condemning hate in all forms," said Congresswoman Grace Meng, Senator Joseph Addabbo, Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi, and Council Member Karen Koslowitz in a joint statement.

A few Catholic organizations have mobilized support on behalf of the church, too.

On Thursday, the Knights of Columbus organized a fundraiser to replace the church's decimated statues.

"Artisans inspecting the damage have determined that the statues are beyond repair and will have to be replaced," reads the GoFundMe page organized on behalf of the church.

Within a day, the fundraiser has raised more than half of its $25,000 goal.

Since Saturday's vandalism, church leaders assembled the broken statue pieces on the lawn in front of Our Lady of Mercy, and put signs on them asking people to "please pray for the person who did this."

Father Frank Schwarz, the pastor of Our Lady of Mercury, told the Forest Hills Post that he is praying these kinds of attacks "against Catholic churches and all houses of worship will end, and religious tolerance may become more a part of our society."