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Five Menlo Park churches were vandalized with animal rights messages as churchgoers spotted spray-painted messages as they arrived for Sunday Mass, according to the Menlo Park Police Department.
The messages, which were discovered on Saturday, Sept. 27, read “Please Pope, bring back reincarnation. No meat = no killing. Obviously. Save souls forever.” Although the Menlo Park Police Department doesn’t have an exact time that the act was committed, it believes the churches were vandalized sometime in the evening and overnight.
Law enforcement officials stated that they currently do not have a suspect and investigations are ongoing.
“They are not considered a hate crime based on what we can tell from the writing, at this time,” added Menlo Park Police spokesperson Nicole Acker.
The targeted churches varied in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran and Christian faith:
- St. Denis Catholic Church, 2250 Avy Ave., Menlo Park
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1105 Valparaiso Ave., Menlo Park
- St. Raymond Catholic Church, 1100 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park
- Menlo Church, 950 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park
- Bethany Lutheran Church, 1095 Cloud Ave., Menlo Park
Lucy Soltau, director of faith formation at St. Denis Church, said she saw the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been tagged on Sunday morning as she drove by Valparaiso Avenue on the way to St. Denis Church. Soltau said when she arrived at the parking lot of St. Denis, she was surprised to see the same message graffitied on the church’s office building but felt a sense of comfort knowing they were not the only ones.
“I read what they wrote and I got the impression that they were just really passionate about this particular issue and this is the way they chose to express it,” Saltau said. “It didn’t seem to be violent or mean. They even said ‘please’ in their spray painting.”
As a member of St. Denis Church for 10 years, Saltau said it has never been vandalized before last Saturday. The church finished painting over the message two days after.
Menlo Church’s Lead Pastor Phil Eubank said in a statement to The Almanac that while a coat of paint could cover up the graffiti, “acts like this always carry a sense of sadness, not just because of the property damage, but because they often reflect deeper pain or disconnection in our community.”
