VANDALS have desecrated a life-size statue of Mary MacKillop in Brisbane’s St Stephen’s Chapel in the latest act of vandalism in the cathedral grounds.
Some time on the afternoon of February 9 someone snapped four fingers and the thumb from the statue’s right hand.
Cathedral administrator Fr Peter Dillon described the attack on the statue as ‘absolutely shocking’.
‘We’re terribly upset,’ he said. ‘It’s so disappointing that a person could do this.’
The pieces were left on the floor and the statue’s sculptor, John Elliott, is looking at ways to reinstate them.
Mr Elliott sculpted the statue from the trunk of a 100 year-old camphor laurel tree.
Archbishop John Bathersby described the vandalism of the statue as ‘an insult to everything Mary MacKillop stood for’.
Fr Dillon said that if vandalism continued, access may have to be further restricted.
‘Perhaps it’s an indicator of the times in which we live, when there are people with too much time on their hands,’ he said.
