California Catholic school official says vandals committed more than material damage in sacrilegious attack

A faculty member is opening up after his California Catholic school was ransacked over the weekend, calling the break-in "more than material" for the religious community.

The Justice Department has announced an investigation into the vandalism at Holy Innocents Catholic School in Long Beach, California. Tony Tripp, the school's director of advancement, described the damage as extensive and said the vandals ransacked nearly every room.

"They pretty much went through the whole place - didn't matter where it was throughout there - and ransacked whatever they could," Tripp said Thursday on "Fox & Friends First."

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Video shows classrooms torn apart, broken furniture and a large Virgin Mary statue destroyed. The parish's tabernacle, a sacred object to Catholics, was also damaged.

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The damage from the break-in is estimated at $100,000, Fox 11 reported. But Tripp said the value of many of the objects goes beyond material loss and that the damage was sacrilegious.

"This is a center of our faith, especially the tabernacle; that's the biggest thing for us," Tripp said, adding that the vandals were trying to break the religious object open.

Tripp said the school is calling on those responsible to turn themselves in. He speculated that multiple people may be involved and that the motive could be robbery or anti-religious.

"Not sure what the motivation was, but I do know that we want them to obviously make reparation and change what they've done," said Tripp.

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He noted that, despite the pain over the damage, the Catholic community has shown the school support, adding, "We've never expected anything like this."

"It's given us tremendous hope, you know, that people still have faith and believe in God and are willing to stand up for their faith."

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon posted about the situation on X, writing that the agency will be opening up an investigation into the "awful crime."