“The statue was later found on Thursday afternoon in a storage room next to a transformer, cut up into six different parts. Doris Wennerberg, the parish assistant at the Mary Magdalene Catholic Parish, said that she hoped the statue could be put back together and placed back where it had been stolen from….According to criminal and freight inspector at the Stockholm Police Jan-Åke Törnhage, thefts of bronze objects and statues are becoming more and more common across Sweden, with thieves likely looking to melt the statues down in order to sell the metal.”
But this statue wasn’t melted down. It was apparently abandoned, without any pieces missing, since the parish assistant hopes that it could be put back together.
Could the perpetrators have been people who believe that representational art is sinful in itself, and that the veneration of saints is idolatrous, and that “when you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks” (Qur’an 47:4)? Possibly. And possibly not. But how many incidents of this kind did Sweden experience before it had a large population of such people?
“Church desecrations and robberies have been a major issue in other European countries like France where an estimated three churches are attacked every day on average.”
Same question: France has had haters of the Church for centuries. Why is this happening only now?
“Sweden: Statue of Virgin Mary Stolen and Found Chopped Into Pieces,” by Chris Tomlinson, Breitbart, December 8, 2019:
A bronze 200-kilogram statue of the Virgin Mary has been found cut up into six pieces days after it was stolen from a Roman Catholic church in the city of Gothenburg.
The statue, which was around 1.75 metres (5’7″) in height, was stolen from the St. Mary Magdalene’s church in Hisingen, where it lay in a custom-built area outside of the church building, Goteborgs Posten reports.
The statue was later found on Thursday afternoon in a storage room next to a transformer, cut up into six different parts.
Doris Wennerberg, the parish assistant at the Mary Magdalene Catholic Parish, said that she hoped the statue could be put back together and placed back where it had been stolen from.
“We will review the security, it has been stolen once so there is a risk that it will be taken again and perhaps in an even worse way. It must be repaired and we must get a new safety device before we can set it up again,” she said.
According to criminal and freight inspector at the Stockholm Police Jan-Åke Törnhage, thefts of bronze objects and statues are becoming more and more common across Sweden, with thieves likely looking to melt the statues down in order to sell the metal….
Church desecrations and robberies have been a major issue in other European countries like France where an estimated three churches are attacked every day on average.