Overland Park police investigate Catholic church vandalism ahead of Value Them Both vote
The Overland Park Police Department confirmed it is investigating vandalism that occurred over the weekend at a Catholic church.
Officer John Lacy, a police spokesman, said no arrests have been made as of Monday morning.
On Sunday morning, the words “My body my choice” were discovered written in red paint across Ascension Catholic School, which adjoins the Church of the Ascension in Overland Park, along with the words, “F--- your dirty $.” A statue of the Virgin Mary was also splattered with red paint.
“A female suspect was seen running northbound from the scene,” Lacy said in an email. “We believe this incident is related to recent abortion court ruling.”
On Aug. 2, Kansas will be the first state in the country to hold a referendum on abortion rights following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
An amendment on the August primary ballot would remove the right to abortion from the state constitution, where it had been found to be protected in a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling.
If passed, the amendment would give state lawmakers the ability to restrict abortion or ban the procedure completely.
The Church of the Ascension has been at the forefront of local fundraising and campaigning for Kansans to vote yes on Aug. 2.
More than half the money the Value Them Both PAC raised last year came from churches, The Star reported last month. The Kansas City, Kansas, diocese gave $500,000, and The Ascension Catholic Church donated $10,600.
Archbishop Joseph Fred Naumann, the head of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, said Sunday he viewed the vandalism as an “obvious” response to the donations Ascension has made to the Value Them Both campaign.
“It’s just not American to try and intimidate others by these kinds of acts of vandalism and theft, and it’s not going to intimidate us. It’s going to motivate us,” Naumann said.
He added that while this is the first time that church was vandalized, parishioners in the diocese have also had “vote yes” signs stolen and defaced.
The archdiocese in a statement Sunday called it an “overt act of hatred and incivility.”
“We try to respect the people that disagree with us. Everybody’s made in the divine image and they have a right to speak, but these type of things are unacceptable,” Naumann added.
