Orthodox Church Vandalized in Dracut, MA

[Last week I posted a blog on the rise of Satanic and ritualistic crimes. Yesterday I went to go view an incident that occurred last weekend in Dracut, Massachusetts near Lowell at an Orthodox Church and have posted some pictures above. Someone came a spray painted a bunch of swastikas and expletives, as well as painted the face of the devil. Are these people Satanists? I don't know, but it can definately be categorized as a Satanic cime. The whole thing is sad because just a few years before, this same church was vandalized and the white paint that covered that is still visible in the front of the church. At least this time everything happened in the rear of the church. But what is worse is that this beautiful church was recently built after the previous church burned down in 1999. Unfortunately even if all this graffiti is covered up, the scars will always remain visible to remind people. -J.S.]

DRACUT CHURCH VANDALIZED: 'It destroys the spirit'

Graffiti latest case of harassment against parish

By David Perry, dperry@lowellsun.com

Updated: 04/27/2009

DRACUT -- Nearly 10 years to the day after a fire destroyed Assumption of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church in Lowell's Acre neighborhood, staff and parishioners arrived at services yesterday morning to find swastikas, obscenities and other messages of hate and intolerance spray-painted across the back of the Dracut church that rose from the ashes at 1160 Mammoth Road.

You" were scrawled in black paint, and swastikas and other markings were formed, apparently, to make the shape of a devil's head. Also scrawled in the mix were the letters "fsu."

Saying the church has been "constantly harassed" over the past few years, the Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Clapsis stood in the parking lot behind the church and pointed to the handiwork of hate.

The priest said he suspects the incident happened "most probably" on Saturday night.
Thanks to earlier vandalism, some of the parish's back windows are pocked with holes and shattered, the front entrance's coffee-colored stucco walls of the Byzantine structure are peppered with white filler, from holes made there.

They've had graffiti before, long since covered and repainted.

But nothing like this.

"Now it is not a matter of harassment anymore, but a hate crime," said the priest calmly, gazing at the wall. "And now it is not only us, but the public and community of Dracut that this affects. It destroys the spirit in the community."

"I think the community is going to have to take this very seriously," said Sen. Steve Panagiotakos, who arrived at the church yesterday to survey the damage. "This kind of incident is hateful, hurtful behavior, and it can't be tolerated."

"Things have been calm lately," said Nikitas Flaris, the parish president. "And then this."

Flaris said he learned of the crime yesterday at about 9 a.m.

Pointing to scraped handrails, Flaris said he has chased off skateboarding kids in the past. Signs prohibiting skateboarders have been posted on the property, and sometimes torn down, said Flaris.

"Someone is going to get killed here someday," he said, pointing to steep stairs in back "that they use to jump off."

But officials said no one was ready to blame skateboarding teens for the crime.

"This is something different," said Clapsis.

Flaris said Dracut police have said in the past they would patrol more often, and advised him to install security cameras. Police did not return several phone calls seeking information about the vandalism.

Though such security cameras are the "next step," said Flaris, the Rev. Clapsis was more concerned with the larger meaning of the crime.

"This is a parish that burned and then came out here to rebuild," said Panagiotakos. "To have this happen is very hurtful. It took a long time to raise the money to build the parish, and to see people do this is just disgusting."

The priest did not mention the incident during services yesterday.

"No, I did not," Clapsis said. "We are still celebrating Easter, and it is a message of hope today. I did not want to address it today." But as many of the church's 200 or so worshippers left services yesterday, "they mentioned they were worried about it."

In the early morning hours of April 25, 1999, a five-alarm fire destroyed the church, which had stood since 1964.

After construction began in 2001, the parish re-opened at its Dracut location on Palm Sunday (April 24) 2003.

Flaris said the total cost of the church is about $4.5 million.

Add the incalculable cost of hate, said Clapsis, who said he will bring the incident to the area's interfaith council.

"By using swastikas and the devil, it's a way of saying something is not going well in the community. This affects everyone. And if this happens now, what is next?"