The heads and hands of both Mary and the baby Jesus now disappear from a statue outside the Roman Catholic church of Sainte-Anne des Pins in central Sudbury.
The statue was last reported in July last year, when the disappearance of the head of the child Jesus was reported, which the president of the board of directors of the parish of Sainte-Anne Des Pins, Michel Chrétien , said at the time that he was accompanying other acts of vandalism to his property.
“The problem is not going away and it seems to be increasing year by year,” Chrétien said last year, a point he reiterated today on Sudbury.com in response to current concerns.
In late May, Mary joined her son to deal with the beheading along with additional damage.
“I don’t know if the statue itself is recoverable right now,” Chrétien said. “There have been a lot of problems with this statue.”
The two heads are in the possession of the church along with the balance of broken pieces, minus some fragments.
“It’s an ongoing story, a constant problem of vandalism with the church, and not just the church but the whole city center,” Chrétien said, clarifying that he doesn’t believe the church has been attacked, but that it has been linked to the more general problems facing the city center.
Chrétien does not want the community to draw a line between the city’s homeless community and the damage to the church, citing it as unfair because it is unknown who is responsible.
People have been stealing or damaging “whatever they can get their hands on … it’s small enough to move or break,” he said. Its air conditioning units have also been damaged along with other components on the outside of the building.
“We’re always exploring different ideas to protect land, protect buildings, so we’re exploring the idea of putting up a fence or repairing the fence we already have around the land, but that’s pretty expensive,” Chrétien said.
Additional fencing, he added, would be the last resort.
“It’s a little sad that we should go for this, but we may have no choice.”
The statue of Mary and the baby Jesus received international attention in 2016 after the head of the baby Jesus was cut by a vandal the year before and replaced by a temporary head by a local artist. The attention came as a result of the appearance of the head, which was criticized for its difference in color with respect to the rest of the statue and its features.
In October 2016, the missing head was returned. It was repositioned on the statue the following year.
The age of the statue is unknown, Chrétien said, as it was moved from another church when the current building opened in 1996.
Tyler Clarke covers town hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.