Vandals Force Church Doors--Open 25 Years--to Be Locked

The doors of St. Ferdinand’s Roman Catholic Church in San Fernando, which for 25 years have stayed open so that parishioners could pray in the sanctuary at any time, were locked Monday because of recent vandalism.

The Rev. Paul Waldie, church pastor, said vandals have broken partitions on the confessional doors, stolen a cross from the altar tabernacle, set a small fire on the baptismal font and stolen statues from the Christmas Nativity--all in the past six weeks.

The last straw came Jan. 10, when the pastor arrived to hear confessions and, he said, found “a hazy mist inside the church. Then I saw that someone had gotten a fire extinguisher and sprayed up and down the aisles and all over the pews.

‘I Had to Do Something’

“At that point I said I had to do something. I had to lock the doors,” Waldie said.

St. Ferdinand’s Parish was established in 1902 and, except for the San Fernando Mission, is the oldest Roman Catholic parish in the San Fernando Valley, Waldie said. The Maclay Avenue church building was erected in 1949 and now serves 1,600 families.

“For all those years, we have been able to leave the doors open so that people could come and pray whenever they wanted,” Waldie said. “You could always find someone in here during the day.”

Waldie said the incidents began in December. First someone attempted to break into a heavy metal “poor box,” knocking it over. Then fiberglass partitions were punched out of confessional doors.

Next, Waldie said, he discovered ornaments on the covering of the baptismal font had been burned off. Someone tried to break into the sacristy, the room containing vestments, but an alarm was set off. Three weeks ago a small cross atop the tabernacle, a cabinet-like enclosure for consecrated bread, was stolen.

“For a Catholic this is the most sacred part of the church, and this was a real offense,” he said.

At Christmastime, figures from the Nativity scene were stolen. “First they took Baby Jesus. Then the Blessed Mother. Finally they got the Wise Men and St. Joseph,” Waldie said.

San Fernando police were notified of the crimes a week ago, and he told parishioners at Sunday services that the doors would be locked starting the next day.

Waldie said he had not previously notified police because, until the fire extinguisher was discharged, he had thought each incident to be insignificant and isolated.

“I thought then that maybe it was one person doing all this, and because we weren’t doing anything about it, they may have been getting bolder and bolder,” he said.

Guard Considered

Waldie said that although it is not unusual for churches to be locked, he very much wants to reopen the doors and is considering hiring a guard to patrol the grounds.

Police have no suspects, but San Fernando police Sgt. John Maertz said he will increase patrols around the church and plans to conduct surveillance.

Joe Baratha, 73, an 18-year parishioner who found the doors locked Monday afternoon when he came to pray, said he was angered by the vandalism.

“It’s a crazy world when people start hurting the church,” Baratha said. “It defeats the whole purpose of taking sanctuary in your church if the doors are going to be locked. But I guess it’s the only way to stop the stealing.”