St. Mary’s Church is a historical landmark in Campbellford — first built in the late 1800s and then rebuilt in 1900 following a Christmas Eve fire.
Over the last eight years, the church has undergone significant restoration but window break-ins last week have caused some devastating setbacks, and $17,000 in damage.
“On Thursday last week, just after they had been put in later on in the evening, someone broke into the scaffolding tower and having made their way up there, broke the brand new, newly-installed rose windows,” said Father Jean-Pierre Pilon.
Two windows were smashed. The damage was discovered by the construction crew when they came into work the next day.
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“As a parish, we’d been waiting for roughly five years for that to be done. We had a plywood boarding holes up there for well over five years so it’s kind of disappointing that right away after, it was broken,” said Pilon.
The two broken windows are on the tower that is currently under construction hidden by the scaffolding. They look very similar to the one seen here, except with three lobes, instead of four.
“The labour in materials involved in fixing those two windows was roughly about $17,000 — that involves the three-layered frames and the tempered glass, the paint, the labour,” said Pilon.
Father Pilon says the church is struggling to make its monthly payments for the restoration work. This extra cost will now be added on to the bill.
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“This is a question of justice at hand here. We’re in the business of mercy — we probably want to forgive the person, but also to show them that there is a number of people being affected by it, emotionally, spiritually, practically,” said Pilon.
Police are asking anyone with information regarding this crime to contact the Northumberland OPP at 1-888-310-1122.
Should you wish to remain anonymous, you may contact the Peterborough/Northumberland Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.