(LifeSiteNews) — Parishioners at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in East Islip, New York, were shocked to discover the violent desecration of their Sacred Heart statue over the weekend.

The head of Jesus Christ, on the picturesque structure outside the church, had been severed from the body and later discovered in nearby bushes.

The damage was reported around 11 a.m. Saturday as families gathered for a Mass celebrating the First Holy Communion for a class of young children.

Showing resigned charity and forbearance, Fr. Anthony Iaconis, pastor of St. Mary’s, commented to local media, “It’s a terrible thing. I just ask people to pray for the person who did this. It’s not right, but we can still pray for them.”

“Across the way into the auditorium, we had First Communions and this is where the kids come and they take their picture,” Father Iaconis said regarding the attractive statue and garden.

The head of a Sacred Heart of Jesus statue at St. Mary’s Church on Long Island, New York, which was found beheaded, has been discovered in nearby bushes.

Info: Long Island News pic.twitter.com/WzgzIOf8nS

— Sachin Jose (@Sachinettiyil) May 19, 2026

Suffolk County Police’s Hate Crimes Unit is actively investigating the incident and searching for those responsible.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre responded swiftly as well. “Along with the parishioners of Saint Mary’s Church, the Diocese is troubled by the vandalism to the statue of Our Lord,” said Fr. Eric Fasano, diocesan spokesman. “As the investigation continues, we pray that justice will be restored for the parish.”

Local coverage highlighted the community’s distress. One parishioner attending her granddaughter’s First Holy Communion described the scene as “disturbing,” noting multiple police vehicles outside after the service.

While high-profile statue desecrations remain relatively uncommon on Long Island itself, a 2017 wave of satanic graffiti targeted four Suffolk County Protestant churches in North Amityville, including upside-down crosses, pentagrams, “hail Satan,” and other symbols.

In nearby Queens, incidents have been more recent with vandals striking two Catholic churches in March. At St. Rita’s in Long Island City, a statue of St. Francis of Assisi was defaced with blue paint and the word “pagan” was spray-painted on the sidewalk with an arrow pointing to the statue. This marked at least the third time St. Rita’s had been targeted in recent years.

Just days earlier at St. Gertrude’s in Far Rockaway, a 100-year-old Blessed Mother statue was knocked over and smashed — the third attack on the statue in less than six months, now rendering it beyond repair.

The New York Police Department Hate Crimes Task Force investigated both cases.

Dramatic rise in attacks on Christian churches in US, Israel

Nationally, such attacks form part of a documented surge. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has tracked at least 416 incidents of vandalism, arson, or destruction at Catholic sites across 43 states and D.C. since May 2020. These range from beheaded statues and anti-Catholic graffiti to church fires.

An August 2024 report from the Family Research Council revealed that such attacks against churches in the United States sharply increased in recent years, indicating growing sentiments of anti-Christian hatred that has been manifested in other parts of the world as well.

The Evangelical activist organization identified 1,384 acts of hostility against Christian churches that have been committed between January 2018 and December 2024, with 50 such crimes occurring in 2018, 83 in 2019, 55 in 2020 and 98 in 2021.

However, in 2022, there was a dramatic spike after the leak of the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft Dobbs decision that, when formally released in June, overturned the infamous 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. The numbers of such attacks that year more than doubled, hitting 198, and suggesting a widespread coordinated criminal campaign.

The rise in hostile aggressions continued in 2023 with incidents more than doubling again to 485 before leveling off in 2024 with 415.

The vast majority of incidents were classified as vandalism (284), with cases of arson numbering 55, gun-related crimes at 28, bomb threats, 14, and other incidents at 47, with 13 falling into more than one category.

Catholic churches burned, defaced with satanic graffiti, statues desecrated

Focusing specifically on Catholic churches, American advocacy group CatholicVote has maintained an interactive map that tracks violent attacks on churches throughout the U.S. since 2020 when mob violence related to the tragic death of George Floyd ensued across the nation.

Having updated the resource on April 15, the organization that defends “Faith, Family, and Freedom” confirmed documenting “at least 563 attacks against Catholic churches in the United States” since May 28, 2020. It also documents the sharp rise in such crimes after the leaked Dobbs decision, noting 396 incidents in that timeframe, with 20 having already been documented in 2026.

Increases in anti-Christian violence in Israel and occupied Palestinian territories

Increased attacks against Christians and their symbols are not limited to the United States.

In April, a photograph surfaced on X and other social media outlets showing an Israeli soldier smashing the head of a statue of Jesus Christ with a sledgehammer.

The image quickly went viral and sparked global outrage among Christians, including the Catholic bishops of the Holy Land, who issued an “unreserved condemnation” of the desecration. Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa stated that the act “constitutes a grave affront to the Christian faith and adds to other reported incidents of desecration of Christian symbols by IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon.”

Another such incident occurred soon after with a viral photo showing an Israeli soldier desecrating a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, eliciting additional condemnations from Catholic leaders.

Furthermore, in Israel and its occupied Palestinian territories, Christians have reported being under increased attack since the current government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office in December 2022.

This observation is echoed by Israel’s Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, which released a report in March documenting what it calls “the escalating harassment Christian communities have faced for many years, in Jerusalem and other areas of the country.”

The trend includes increased incidents of spitting, physical and verbal harassment, property damage and disruptions of religious processions, the Jerusalem-based interfaith peacebuilding organization noted.

READ: Israeli investigative reporter spat on, harassed in Jerusalem while dressed as a Catholic priest

The data confirms that of the 155 logged incidents in 2025, all were committed by Jews, with “most perpetrators” being “teenagers or young adults — including some uniformed soldiers — while a minority are older men and even children.”