Students Restore Santa Rosa Cross After Desecration
Bishop Vasa blessed the new hilltop cross as Marian Sisters prayed for the vandal who felled the original in September.
On October 14, football players from Cardinal Newman High School hoisted a new 400-pound aluminum cross and carried it up the steep hilltop above the convent of the Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa in California. The cross was anchored once more in the skyline after vandals cut down the original in September.
St. Rose Elementary students, the Marian Sisters, and contractors from J. Warner Enterprises joined the effort. The contractors rearranged their construction schedule to complete the installation. The day closed with a blessing by Bishop Robert Vasa of the Diocese of Santa Rosa.
A Community Rallies Around the Cross
The replacement was fabricated by the local Lind family. Bishop Vasa expressed gratitude to them and to the contractors who assisted. He said he was distressed to hear of the vandalism, calling such senseless acts against sacred symbols “deeply saddening.” He noted that the sisters were somewhat traumatized by the thought that a stranger had come onto their property.
Sister Mary Emmanuel said that on the day of the tragedy some sisters walked up to the fallen cross and prayed “for forgiveness for the man who did it, in reparation for this act of desecration.”
Students at Cardinal Newman quickly noticed the cross was missing. They voiced concern and immediately wanted to raise money for its restoration—a response Bishop Vasa called “very edifying and consoling.” Practically every Cardinal Newman student hikes up to the cross during the freshman retreat. Father Christopher Girolo, the school’s chaplain, said he was “extremely proud of our community for coming together to make this happen,” adding that three altar servers assisted with the blessing.
The Cross Endures
Football players who volunteered found the work more challenging than expected but complained only that “this cross is heavy.”
Bishop Vasa stated, “The cross, however, endures; the love of Christ endures.” The restored symbol once again marks the convent property and the hillside above Santa Rosa, a visible sign of faith renewed by young Catholics, religious sisters, and local craftsmen after an act of desecration.