Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in a humble manger during the Christmas season, an event depicted in the nativity scene. A mysterious culprit, however, has done the unthinkable by replacing the baby Jesus in the scene with a severed head of a pig.
In the early hours of Christmas, a thief stole the statue of the infant Jesus from a nativity scene in a raised wooden box outside the Sacred Hearts Parish in Haverhill, Mass., an act already considered offensive, but the culprit did worse by replacing the statue with a freshly decapitated pig's head.
The church's pastor, John Delaney, said that he was both shocked and horrified when he saw the bloody head of the animal in place of the baby Jesus in the créche just before mass on Christmas day.
"It's just a really hurtful commentary on society, and for someone to do this sad deed is really shocking," Delaney said, adding that church-goers were also heartbroken and outraged by the act and more so because of the timing. Police estimate that the statue was stolen after the midnight mass.
In a press conference held on Dec. 26, the Haverhill Police Department asked help from the public to find the perpetrator of the offensive act, which they think could possibly be a hate crime.
"Certainly, there's a lot of symbolism with what was done. And it is concerning if it is discovered that this is a hate crime," said police spokesman Lieutenant Robert Pistone.
The lieutenant noted that the pig did not seem to have been sold by a butcher because they normally remove the animal's hair. The severed head of the pig was hairy and appeared to have just been freshly decapitated.
Still, the police officer asked local farms and butcher shops to step forward if they have information that could help authorities catch the culprit, such as if they have sold some whole pigs.
Pistone likewise said that animal cruelty charges could be filed against the perpetrator if the animal was butchered for the crime. Officials said anyone with information can contact 978-373-1212.
It is also not the first time that the church experienced an offensive act of vandalism on its religious objects. In an earlier incident, somebody cut off the two hands of the church's statue of Jesus. Somebody also left several decapitated pigs' heads at another Haverhill church several years ago. To this day, that crime is still unsolved.
