Desecration of Cap Sainte-Marie shrine

Religion
Desecration of Cap Sainte-Marie shrine
AnseBoileau residents have expressed shock and dismay at the appalling and senseless act of destruction against a religious symbol of their community last week when a statue of the Virgin Mary was vandalised.
A. Lo Pinto
At the sight of the empty grotto and its broken and desecrated statue of the Blessed Virgin, the disappointment of Anse Boileau’s residents was palpable last Thursday. It wasn’t about who or how that was on everyone’s mind but why this happened in the first place. TODAY was on the ground seeking reactions from the South Mahé district’s constituents who were asking themselves what could have pushed anyone to such an act of vandalism on Sunday 16 October.
Could the incident be blamed on drugs or alcohol? Or was there another explanation to do with failures in the education system, which according to many Seychellois, has been found wanting in
terms of civic culture?
“They threw the statue’s head away and I wish I knew why,” one Anse Boileau resident told TODAY. “I found out Monday morning when friends informed me about what happened the night before,” he continued, adding that the statue was in the process of being repaired. “The statue was there long before my birth in 1966,”he said. “This whole incident saddens me deeply. I don’t understand how we let individuals get drunk, smoke marijuana and finally act irresponsibly,” he concluded.
According to another Anse Boileau resident, the act was not an isolated one. Fifteen years ago, he remembers the statue being repaired after it was knocked down from its platform which resulted in one of the arms being broken off. The parish priest at the time, Père Lafortune, apparently fixed the Cap Marie statue himself.
In terms of the damage to the shrine, its statue of the Virgin Mary is of course missing, vases have been emptied with flowers tossed to the floor as well as a rosary and what looks like some small remaining pieces of the statue scattered across the shrine’s floor. The residents approached by TODAY last Thrusday did not know where the statue was.
It had been found on Monday morning with a severed head, which was allegedly either tossed or rolled down to the beach. As for the rest of it, bystanders informed TODAY that it was found lying on its side facing its original place inside the shrine. “Everybody must have seen it on Monday morning,” another Anse Boileau resident said. “I sign myself every morning as I pass by,” she continued, adding that
as a Catholic, this hurt her a lot. “This is the exact location where we start our yearly 15 September procession,” she concluded.
TODAY also met with the Anse Boileau parish priest, Father Alemanana, who shared his very pessimistic view on the decay of moral values in Seychelles which, he believes, are the root cause of this incident.“This is an act of arrogance,” he said. “An inhumane set of events took place that Sunday evening,” Father Alemanana continued, adding that a deficiency in the education system could be a plausible explanation.
He thinks it boils down to something he has already observed here. “We do not respect each other like we used to,” he said. “We do not respect our brothers, our sisters and ourselves for that matter. Living
together is now becoming an issue,” he added. “There is also a lack of humanity and we were created to live in harmony,” Father Alemanana concluded.
Contacted by TODAY, Anse Boileau police station was unable to provide any information on the progress in their investigations into the incident but most residents, including Father Alemanana, agreed that the statue was examined by police for finger prints but that feedback had been inconclusive as of last Thursday.
“The Lord knows who perpetrated such a hateful act,” Father Alemanana told TODAY, adding that he had not expected this from a Christian country, and that it represents yet another incident going against what this country really stands for.
Once repaired, Cap Sainte Marie’s statue of the Virgin Mary will be put back in its original pedestal whilst the shrine will be surrounded by a protective fence. TODAY has learned that this is the fourth time the statue has been vandalised, but never to this extent.

https://www.facebook.com/todayinsey/photos/pcb.1132809660090176/1132806196757189/?type=3