The altar of the St. Jude Parish Church in Koblerville was set on fire midday last Sunday but only a portion of the altar was charred as the fire was put out as soon as neighbors noticed the church\u2019s broken door and the smoke.<\/p>\n
The St. Jude Parish Church was broken into last Sunday, believed to be between 1pm and 2:30pm, by an unknown suspect who put a portion of the altar on fire. Nothing was reported stolen.<\/p>\n
The suspect also left what seemed to be a goat or dog skull below the 10 commandments monument just outside the church, by the social hall.<\/p>\n
The Department of Public Safety has yet to release an official statement about the incident.<\/p>\n
According to church pastor Rev. James Balajadia, there are no surveillance cameras around the area so there is no visual footage.<\/p>\n
Balajadia said the incident happened on Sunday between 1pm to 2:30pm following Mass and parish fellowship. Balajadia was informed of the incident by a neighbor and Parish deacon Sam Benavente.<\/p>\n
Blajadia said he observed at the scene that the altar cloth cover was set on fire but, because a wax candle was used, it died out on its own. The doors were also left broken and the entire parish was smoky while the altar was charred.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think they were trying to burn down the church but, I don\u2019t know. He could have come with kerosene or gasoline. They could have done much worse than just trying to light something,\u201d said Balajadia.<\/p>\n
He said that, as upsetting as the scene was, he only hopes that the person behind it gets help.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s upsetting but it shows that this person really needs help and, whatever they\u2019re going through, we\u2019re here, we know there are other agencies on Saipan that want to help him and this just shows that there are people who are really struggling right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Balajadia has mixed emotions about the incident\u2014saddened by the break-in but also grateful that no one was hurt is.<\/p>\n
\u201cit could be worse and I still walk away with gratitude. it\u2019s just sad and it\u2019s upsetting to see but, at the same time, I\u2019m grateful that it didn\u2019t happen during one of our youth events, which we have here every week\u2026or even during Mass when there are a lot of children and elderly who are really vulnerable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Balajadia is urging anyone who may have any leads to come forward for justice\u2019s sake and for the suspect to get help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The altar of the St. Jude Parish Church in Koblerville was set on fire midday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}