\t\t\t\t14<\/p>\n
LONG BEACH, Calif. (OSV News) \u2014\u00a0When Principal Cyril Cruz arrived at Holy Innocents School in Long Beach early on the morning of Feb. 2, she discovered a scene of \u201cdesecration\u201d: trash, food, several Virgin Mary statues broken and Catholic missal books spilled onto the floor. The tabernacle was significantly damaged.<\/p>\n
Since the discovery, the Department of Justice\u2019s Civil Rights Division announced that it will \u201copen an investigation into this awful crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260204T1600-SCHOOL-DESECRATION-LONG-BEACH-1812598-1024x768.jpg\")
Father Robert McGowan, wearing gold vestments, associate pastor at Holy Innocents Church, and Father Peter Irving III, the pastor at Holy Innocents, holding the monstrance, lead a Eucharistic procession through the streets around Holy Innocents School in Long Beach, Calif., Feb. 3, 2026, one day after the school was discovered vandalized and ransacked. (OSV News photo\/Mike Cisneros, courtesy Angelus News)<\/p>\n
Bishop Marc Trudeau, the auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who are broken tend to break things,\u201d Trudeau said during the homily. \u201cAnd healing is necessary. We can\u2019t look at them or demonize them as terrible people.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
That a Mass was being held at all in the school hall was a miracle considering what school officials had seen the day before.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 including a life-size replica that had been at the school since its opening in 1958 \u2014 were shattered or dismembered. The bronze tabernacle holding the Eucharist was thrown to the floor, broken.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260204T1600-SCHOOL-DESECRATION-LONG-BEACH-1812600-1024x682.jpg\")
A classroom is seen after Holy Innocents School in Long Beach, Calif., was discovered vandalized and ransacked on Feb. 2, 2026. (OSV News photo\/courtesy Holy Innocents School)<\/p>\n
And so much more that couldn\u2019t be fully comprehended.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Cruz called Irving, teachers, and staff, letting them know that they weren\u2019t going to be able to have Mass that morning. Then she called the police.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 with the help of prayer.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But what was emphasized to students was how to respond when bad things happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened here happens because there\u2019s darkness inside someone that they\u2019re carrying with them,\u201d Fiore said she told students. \u201cWe don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/a> so far. Parents stopped by with offers to clean.<\/p>\n And so they went to work, cleaning up the gigantic mess. Irving salvaged the hosts in the damaged tabernacle.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you think we can have Mass tomorrow?\u201d someone asked.<\/p>\n Hours later, what was unthinkable earlier in the day was somehow made possible: the hall was clean, chairs returned, kneelers restored. It wasn\u2019t perfect \u2014 things were still missing or damaged \u2014 but there would be a Mass the next morning.<\/p>\n Students filed into the newly cleaned hall in their red-and-black uniforms for the reparation Mass, before participating in the Eucharistic procession.<\/p>\n Now, school leaders say, it\u2019s important to turn the horrific event into an opportunity to solidify their faith.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like, truly embrace your cross,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cThis 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\u2019s just so beautiful to cling to faith, to pray for the healing of these people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe upsetting thing is this is a school,\u201d Trudeau said. \u201cIt upsets the lives of the children. They feel violated. That\u2019s why we wanted to get back to their normal schedule, their normal routine as soon as possible.<\/p>\n \u201cIt takes time to desecrate a place, but God\u2019s blessing is more powerful than that.\u201d<\/p>\n Donations to the school can be made at lbcatholicschool.com<\/a>, or this GoFundMe page<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mike Cisneros is associate editor of Angelus, the news outlet of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. This story was originally published by Angelus and distributed through a partnership with OSV News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"14 LONG BEACH, Calif. (OSV News) \u2014\u00a0When Principal Cyril Cruz arrived at Holy Innocents School in Long Beach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-164211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}