Members of a Brighton Beach church don’t practice Santeria inside their house of worship, but somebody is, and officials say they now need to do something to exorcise the spirits that may have been invited in.
Priests and flock members at the Church of the Guardian Angel were spooked after finding carved apples and eggs along with vials of cocoa oil and female form-shaped candles around the house of worship — sure signs to them that someone is practicing the Afro-Caribbean religion in their midst — a no-no for their religion.
“This kind of stuff does not belong in a Roman Catholic Church,” said churchgoer Jack Garcia, who first noticed the affront.
Garcia said that candles in the shape of women — a symbol of birth and fertility in Santeria — were left on the altar and the tabernacle. He also saw mustard seeds and feathers sprinkled around statues of St. Jude and St. Michael, and claims to have witnessed two women chanting incantations in the middle of the day a few weeks ago.
Now the Church’s pastor says he has to do something to make sure his parishioners feel safe.
“I want people to feel protected here,” Rev. Francisco Walker said. “This is a safe place. But it is something I am taking seriously. It was very creepy.”
Walker said he offered to conduct an unofficial prayer with Garcia, as well as a type of exorcism to get rid of any uninvited spiritual guests.
The Ocean Parkway church is no stranger to vandalism or litter, and church staff recently began locking the doors in the evenings several days a week. The church no longer keeps holy water on the altar during off-times either, because some visitors were bottling the water, presumably for uses not intended for by the church.
But nothing like this has happened before, according to the church’s secretary, who has worked at Guardian Angel for eight years.
“We’ve had some vandalism before or people leaving garbage like food or dirty diapers in the pews,” Fior Torres said. “But this is something new.”
Last year, Torres notified police when she noticed one of the church’s security cameras was covered. She discovered a man running around the church parking lot with no shirt on, yelling loudly.
Rev. Walker said a more “technologically savvy” parishioner plans to help him examine the church camera footage later this week to identify the person responsible for the desecrations. If they manage to identify him, the priest plans to warn the individual that any further actions will result in a phone call to the police.
“This person must understand that if this ever happens again, we will notify the authorities,” said Walker.
