Cousins charged with felonies in Holy Hill vandalism (older one expresses no regrets)

Let the healing begin!

You may send a donation to help clean up the site to:

Holy Hill National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians
1525 Carmel Road
Hubertus, WI 53033

Special Mass helps Holy Hill heal from graffiti attack
By JAMES A. CARLSON
Associated Press Writer
http://www.jsonline.com

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A special Mass Saturday helped worshippers recover from the outrage at seeing one of Wisconsin's best-known religious shrines desecrated with spray-painted graffiti, much of it signs of the devil, to mark the date 6-6-06, the shrine director said.

"The initial emotion was anger, but there has to be a sense of peacefulness and forgiveness that overrides the anger," the Rev. Cyril Guise said in a telephone interview Saturday evening from Holy Hill.

"The anger is a human reaction," he said. "The response that comes is a sense of forgiveness and mercy."

Two cousins face charges in the vandalism discovered Wednesday morning at the hilltop sanctuary near Erin in Washington County, about 25 miles northwest of Milwaukee.

Painted in red were such things as a pitchfork, the words "Hell on Earth" and "666" - a number some believe refers to the "Mark of the Beast," or a person or entity controlled by the Antichrist.

Milwaukee Roman Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan told those who packed the church for the Mass of reparation that God would restore the uplifting spirit of Holy Hill - and that good has come from evil as the congregation unites, Guise said.

By Saturday, most of the red-painted graffiti that marked walls, doors and statues had been cleaned off after days of work to remove it.

"We still have a lot of work to do on the statues to restore them to their true beauty," Guise said.

The desecrated areas included four or five of the stations of the cross portraying Christ and his passion, he said.

Donations were being taken Saturday to help pay for the cleaning.

"We've had small checks, large checks - I don't know how much," Guise said. "We're going to respond to every penny that was sent to us, to thank them."

Guise said there probably were about 1,000 people from miles around at the Mass.

The archbishop ended with a homily, and "when he finished, the church exploded in applause," Guise said.

"It was a very, very grateful group of people," he said.

The church welcomes pilgrims of all faiths to visit the shrine, enjoy the view of the surrounding countryside, reflect and pray.

Guise said the state estimates that 250,000 to 300,000 people visit Holy Hill each year.

He said he focused on the shrine's meaning when he spoke at the end of Saturday's service.

"I said Holy Hill in spite of all the evil that was done is a beacon of hope, and all of the evil that was perpetrated here could not extinguish that light," he said.

Charged in Washington County Circuit Court Friday with criminal damage to property were Tyler Groth, 21, of Neosho and his cousin, David Groth, 17, of Hartford. They are expected to be back in court Wednesday.

Holy Hill, a U.S. and state registered landmark, includes the church, shrine and a monastery.

"It would and should be in that case, and it should and hopefully will be in this case. Hate crime statutes are pretty much moot in cases of murder or assault, where the penalties should be severe regardless of the motivation. But painting swastikas on a synagogue -- or an inept "Hail Satin" on a church -- is simply not the same crime as painting "Billy luvs Suzie" on a highway overpass, even if the physical act is the same."

Point well taken.....I truly wish we had jurists who possessed the same common sense or were unwilling to pander to political correctness.

EODGUY

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