Almost five months after a century-old marble statue of Christ and another of St. Francis of Assisi were vandalized, repairs were finally completed at Sacred Heart Church, on Castleton Avenue in eastern Staten Island.

The statue of Christ was blessed following the 9 a.m. Mass on Sunday, March 24, ending a sad period in the parish’s history, just in time for the beginning of Holy Week.

“We’re thrilled to announce the restoration of the iconic, century-old statue of the Sacred Heart! After five months of meticulous work, a dedicated team led by Duanne Kempton, with Patrick Smith and Richard Aricprete by her side, have painstakingly recreated the statue’s hands,” wrote Deacon Jim Cowan in a parish Facebook post.

“Special thanks go to Brandon Pak for the generous “hand modeling” that helped us restore the statue to its former glory. We’re also deeply grateful to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation for their crucial support in making this project a reality,” he wrote.

A Mass of reparation was offered at Sacred Heart on Sunday, November 21, 2023, by Archdiocese of New York Auxiliary Bishop Peter Byrne and Bishop John O’Hara (retired). Sacred Heart Church was founded in 1875.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, November 1, 2023, Father Patrick Anthony discovered that the hands of the statue of Christ had been broken off and were missing, the parish said in a statement.

The following day, Father Rhey Garcia, Sacred Heart’s pastor, and other members of the parish found a statue of Saint Francis in the church’s 9/11 remembrance garden had been decapitated, Deacon Jim Cowan said in a November 8, 2023, telephone interview with The Good Newsroom. The missing piece was later found and has since been repaired by a parishioner.

Both the New York Police Department (NYPD) and Staten Island’s Office of the District Attorney were notified. To date, no arrests have been made in the case.

The parish’s security cameras were not aimed in either statue’s direction and did not capture any footage related to the vandalism incidents, Deacon Jim said. Four nearby Christian houses of worship, along with a United States Post Office and a branch of the New York Public Library were not affected, he said. He described the church’s surroundings as a “quiet residential area” with no recent or long-term history of vandalism or similar acts.

To commit the acts of vandalism, the assailant was required to move off of Castleton Avenue toward the Christ statue, which stands about 70 feet from the rectory’s entrance. The St. Francis statue and the 9/11 remembrance garden are in a corner of the church property; the statue itself is not visible from the street and therefore must have been known to the person or persons who committed the acts. An NYPD camera has since been erected to monitor the area.

“God can draw good out of even great evils. As the parish of the Sacred Heart, let us prayerfully ask Him that the scourge of all descriptions bring about a renewal of reverence for all houses of the Lord, the altars of God, and the freedom to worship,” Deacon Jim wrote in his column for the Sacred Heart bulletin, “The Deacon’s Bench,” in November.