CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Historic Mission Cemetery Vandalized

Police have no motive for a rampage of destruction in the cemetery at historic Mission Dolores, founded in 1776. “It was a desecration,” said Msgr. John O’Connor, the mission’s pastor. The vandals apparently climbed a 12-foot-high wall and fence that protects the churchyard and dislodged century-old tombstones, turned over a statue of St. Francis and stole a statue of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, said Police Inspector Joseph Toomey. O’Connor said Tekakwitha, an American Indian of the Mohawk tribe who is a step away from sainthood, was revered by Catholic Indians.