“Mommy, it’s trashed.”
Those were the words Principal Cyril Cruz heard from her son as she arrived at Holy Innocents School in Long Beach the early morning of Feb. 2.
Inside the school hall, Cruz discovered a scene of “desecration”: trash, food, several Virgin Mary statues broken, and Catholic missal books spilled onto the floor. The tabernacle was significantly damaged.
Since the discovery, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced that it will “open an investigation into this awful crime.”
But 24 hours later, students, staff, parents, and community members were back in the cleaned-up space on Feb. 3 to celebrate a Mass of reparation.
Bishop Marc Trudeau, the auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ San Pedro Pastoral Region, began the Mass by blessing the altar and surrounding space with holy water. Following the Mass, Father Peter Irving III, the longtime pastor at Holy Innocents Church, led a Eucharistic procession on the streets and alleyways surrounding the school.
“People who are broken tend to break things,” Trudeau said during the homily. “And healing is necessary. We can’t look at them or demonize them as terrible people.
“Because God sees us all as his children, worthy of redemption, worthy of mercy. So we call on our Blessed Mother to help us to be like her Son, bringing healing and forgiveness to all who need it.”
That a Mass was being held at all in the school hall was a miracle considering what school officials had seen the day before.
When Cruz arrived at the school on the day she discovered the vandalism, she noticed a side door open in the hall where daily Mass is held every morning. She sent her son to close the door, but then he told her what he found.
First, all they saw was trash, with chips and soda cans spilled out. As they looked further, it got much worse. Audio equipment, lighting, and musical instruments were damaged. Virgin Mary statues — including a life-size replica that had been at the school since its opening in 1958 — were shattered or dismembered. The bronze tabernacle holding the Eucharist was thrown to the floor, broken.
And so much more that couldn’t be fully comprehended.
That’s when Cruz called Irving, teachers, and staff, letting them know that they weren’t going to be able to have Mass that morning. Then she called the police.
Kiernan Fiore, the director of academics at Holy Innocents, walked through the campus to make sure there were no longer any threats. Then, teachers and staff got to work on helping the students process what happened — with the help of prayer.
They organized a rosary walk through campus, while several other classrooms were already on their knees in prayer. Some kids were sad. Some were angry.
But what was emphasized to students was how to respond when bad things happen.
“What happened here happens because there’s darkness inside someone that they’re carrying with them,” Fiore said she told students. “We don't know who they are, what their story is, but you have the choice to not carry that kind of darkness, and instead to carry light. You can turn to our Lord right now.”
When the school day ended and the police had finished gathering evidence, the outpouring of assistance and offers of help shocked even those who are used to their supportive community.
Principal friends reached out to Cruz to ask what she needed. Alumni contacted the school to ask how they could help. A GoFundMe was set up that has raised more than $100,000 so far. Parents stopped by with offers to clean.
And so they went to work, cleaning up the gigantic mess. Irving salvaged the hosts in the damaged tabernacle.
“Do you think we can have Mass tomorrow?” someone asked.
Hours later, what was unthinkable earlier in the day was somehow made possible: the hall was clean, chairs returned, kneelers restored. It wasn’t perfect — things were still missing or damaged — but there would be a Mass the next morning.
Students filed into the newly cleaned hall in their red-and-black uniforms for the reparation Mass, before participating in the Eucharistic procession.
Now, school leaders say, it’s important to turn the horrific event into an opportunity to solidify their faith.
“It’s like, truly embrace your cross,” Cruz said. “This is what we do at Holy Innocents. I call it a modern-day martyrdom. And what we really try to teach the kids here is that we want them to be truly good citizens, obviously of the world, but of heaven and their witness. I was telling them, it’s just so beautiful to cling to faith, to pray for the healing of these people.”
“The upsetting thing is this is a school,” Trudeau said. “It upsets the lives of the children. They feel violated. That’s why we wanted to get back to their normal schedule, their normal routine as soon as possible.
“It takes time to desecrate a place, but God’s blessing is more powerful than that.”
Donations to the school can be made at lbcatholicschool.com, or gofund.me/97c679fa7.
