Parishioners in fear as drug addicts smear blood on church statues
The statues were smeared with blood on a number of occasions in the last fortnight, leading some parishioners to believe they were bleeding, Fr John Hughes said.
Fr Hughes, parish priest of St Catherine’s in Meath Street, Dublin, said he has noticed an upsurge in the numbers of heroin addicts openly shooting up in the area.
He is preparing for the funeral service of a 13-year-old girl who died this week of a suspected drugs overdose.
The girl, who lived in Crumlin but whose late father is from the Meath Street area, will be buried this weekend.
That’s the kind of thing that is going on. I know people who have buried three of four children.
Drugs have decimated this community,” Fr Hughes said.
He said addicts regularly use the church to inject and congregate in the alcoves and confessionals.
Fr Hughes said he was reluctant to condemn the addicts, believing those who smeared the statues were out of their mind and in some way may have been making a spiritual statement. However, he said his parishioners were deeply upset at what they saw as sacrilege.
He said the addicts who used St Catherine’s deserved pity. “I have immense compassion for the individuals but get terribly annoyed at the culture that is so tolerant of drugs. It’s not my place to start pontificating especially if you sit with families who have lost their kids.”
He said the socially acceptable drug of choice, alcohol, was a much bigger issue. “It decimates far more stealthily and invades more homes.”
Fr Hughes said that when he comes across addicts in the church, there’s little opportunity to speak with them.
“We just try and ease them out because they are usually out of their minds.”
He said many parishioners were frightened after seeing the blood smeared on the statues. “People were saying the statues were bleeding and that leads us into all kinds of territories.”
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