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July 27, 2020By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
The Blessed Mother was put back in her place Monday – in the grotto at McAuley Nazareth Home in Leicester.
The statue of Mary, which the home learned was missing last week, was found Sunday night by Leicester police, said Kim Paré, executive director of the residential treatment facility for youth.
Nazareth Home plant manager Barry George found the statue undamaged, lying on the ground on Mulberry Street, diagonally across from the grotto, on Monday morning, and called her, she said. Shortly after that, Leicester Police Chief Kenneth M. Antanavica called her and said the police had made note of the statue being there during the night.
“We’re just thrilled – miracles do happen!” Ms. Paré said, in reference to getting the statue back undamaged. She said this can “restore our faith in humanity, for people who take stuff that doesn’t belong to them.”
Ms. Paré said there was no indication of who took the statue or why. Though Mary wasn’t bolted down, “someone didn’t just walk up and take her down” from the niche several feet off the ground, she said. It would have taken more than one person. And, given how she was found lying down undamaged, “they were clearly careful with her.”
Chief Antanavica said police canvased the area after receiving the report of the missing statue.
“Once it was put on Facebook, she came back,” he said. He said the Leicester Police Department posted, and a number of people shared, the information about the missing statue.
“Sister Janet wanted it back, no questions asked,” Chief Antanavica said, in reference to Sister Janet Ballentine, a Sister of Mercy of the Americas who volunteers at the home where she was once executive director. But he said if police get more information, they will investigate further.
After the statue was spotted by patrols on the 11 p.m.-7 a.m. shift, Chief Antanavica called the highway department. He said the “superintendent wanted to help,” and sent a couple people to Nazareth Home. Ms. Paré said they worked with Mr. George to get the statue back in place.
“She’s not a one-person job,” Ms. Paré said. At about five feet, 175-200 pounds, “she’s not a lightweight.” The lighter statue of St. Bernadette, which is on the ground, was not taken, she said.
Chief Antanavica said he was “just glad that we were able to lend a hand in getting Mary back to her rightful place.”
Ms. Paré told the following story about learning that the statue was missing.
Mr. George discovered it when he was mowing the lawn on July 23, and informed her the next day, she said. She said he assumed it had been taken down because a landscaper is doing stone work and powerwashing in the grotto.
Ms. Paré said that on July 24 Sister Janet asked the landscaper about it and he said he’d noticed it missing on July 16, and assumed Nazareth Home had taken it down. He hadn’t noticed it missing when he was there July 9, she said.
When “something becomes part of the fabric; you don’t really notice it’s there, unless it’s not there,” Ms. Paré said.
She said the annual pilgrimage to the grotto held on Aug. 15, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is not being held this year, because of the coronavirus pandemic.
