The graphic red spray paint scrawled on the century-old granite and limestone of Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception may have been drawn by a woman, on her own, in just fifteen minutes. The words “Satan lives here” scrawled across the front brass doors greeted parishioners as they approached the front steps of the iconic downtown Catholic church for 8:30 mass Sunday morning. 

Father Samuel Morehead, who has only been at the Basilica for three months, told The Denver Gazette that church security guards did their rounds at 7 a.m. and then went inside. He thinks the vandalism happened in the daylight between 7:30 and 7:45. When a security guard discovered the slogans and images, the red paint was still wet. 

Denver police halo cameras placed at Logan and Colfax which are focused on the church caught images of a lone tagger, likely a female, and police told Father Morehead that one witness saw it happen. There is no word on an arrest. 

Morehead believes Sunday’s pre-mass attack on his church was well-planned.

“This is not a petty act. It’s not a kid in the night tagging the building,” Morehead explained. “This is an attack on us around areas of faith with sacrilegious and grotesquely sexual references.”

It’s his opinion that the perpetrator mapped the route around the building and hopped a fence to tag a tall bronze statue of Pope John Paul II raising a cross in welcome.

There was plenty of destruction done to the striking historic building during last summer’s riots, which Morehead said cost $70,000 to repair. But in the last three months, the 110-year-old church has been attacked three times. “It’s been a tough summer,” said Morehead. 

The Basilica is not alone. In September, someone sprayed nasty messages on the buildings and nearby cars at Boulder’s Sacred Heart of Mary Catholic Church. Two weeks before that, vandals struck the St. Louis Catholic Church 11 miles to the southeast in Louisville. 

St. Louis Church secretary Lori Domenico said the paint was quickly removed, “The community got together and cleaned the brick with power washers.” She added that there is speculation the two attacks were done by the same group because the messages were similar and both churches were dotted with red raging remarks. 

The Archdiocese of Denver reports that 25 parishes or ministry locations in Northern Colorado have been targets of vandalism, property destruction or theft since February 2020. In a statement, the Archdiocese said, “This has included broken windows, damaged and defaced statues, graffiti, attempted arson, vehicle damage, stolen religious items, and other break-ins and thefts.”

Almost half of those incidents have happened in the last six months.

Cleaning up the mess

Sunday afternoon, a group of parishioners and a downtown business association helped powerwash the granite, limestone and brass of red swastikas, KKK’s and nasty words from Denver’s Basilica. In 36 hours, Morehead has become somewhat of a church CSI aficionado, noting that both the handwriting and red paint on all three Catholic churches, from Boulder to Louisville to Denver, is similar. He added that the tagger spelled everything correctly, including the word “Illuminati” complete with a picture of an eye in a triangle. “This person reads Dan Brown novels,” he deducted.

All kidding aside, Morehead wants the person who ravished his church brought to justice.

“I can forgive, yes, but with responsibility,” he said. “We have to make sure we have healthy boundaries and hold each other responsible. We want this to stop.”