{"id":85626,"date":"2025-12-31T16:33:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T16:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/85626\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T16:33:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T16:33:07","slug":"police-stationed-outside-staten-island-church-after-it-was-defaced-with-feces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/85626\/","title":{"rendered":"Police stationed outside Staten Island church after it was defaced with feces"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 A police presence has been assigned to St. Sylvester\u2019s R.C. church in Concord through the holidays after the church was defaced with feces during Mass<\/a> on Christmas morning.<\/p>\n

The deployment of police to the site was confirmed by both the Richmond County District Attorney\u2019s Office and Councilmember David Carr.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the district attorney\u2019s office told the Advance\/SILive.com that while the matter was still under investigation, the office worked with police to ensure a law enforcement presence at the church through the holiday season.<\/p>\n

Carr said he was disturbed by the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard about this incident from a parishioner of St. Sylvester\u2018s on Christmas Day. It was disturbing to hear of a church being vandalized in this disgusting way at Christmastime, especially since this is the church in which I was baptized,\u201d Carr, a Republican who represents the Mid-Island and parts of southwest Brooklyn, said. \u201cI immediately referred the matter to the 122nd Precinct, and I know they have been in touch with the parish and congregants and that an investigation is ongoing. I have complete faith in the NYPD\u2018s ability to address this matter, and I\u2019m grateful to the 122 for providing a patrol car at St. Sylvester\u2019s at service times since the issue was discovered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"St.Fr. Jacob Thumma, pastor of St. Sylvester R.C. Church in Concord, was celebrating Mass when an unidentified individual smeared feces on the church\u2019s front door and steps on Christmas Day, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025.(Photo courtesy of Fr. Jacob Thumma)<\/p>\n

The assignment of officers to the church comes after the church\u2019s pastor, Father Jacob Thumma, told the Advance\/SILive.com that human feces was discovered on the main doors, steps and railing of the church during the 10 a.m. Mass Christmas morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the Mass was going on around 10:30, I was walking to the church to thank people, and I found human (feces) on the door. Smeared on the outside of the door,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The church\u2019s camera footage captured a man committing the act at 10:26 a.m. Father Thumma said that while the act was disturbing and he reported it to police, he feels sympathy for the man.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looks like he may be a homeless or disturbed person. I feel sorry for him and wonder why he did that on the joyful day of Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Advance\/SILive.com viewed a video that shows a man approach the front of the church carrying a cup. After he leaves, the brown substance is seen splattered across the doors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 A police presence has been assigned to St. Sylvester\u2019s R.C. church in Concord through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-85626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}