“With greater effort, we continue to pray for our people, our land, our blood, and we invoke St. Joseph, patron of the diocese, his protection for all, and that, in these days of Lent, conversion to good be lived out,” the text said.
The violent episode follows other fires that occurred on Feb. 20 and March 4, the first involving two forestry vehicles in the town of Traiguén and the second in the chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in the hamlet of California, about 10 miles from Selva Oscura in the Araucanía region.
On that occasion, according to the police, at least eight people participated in the attack that reduced the church to ashes.
The criminals sprayed the building with a flammable liquid, lit the fire, and escaped, according to Radio Biobío.
There were also shots fired in the vicinity of the place, where a banner was found claiming responsibility for the vandalism, signed by the group “Mapuche Malleco Resistance,” a loosely organized indigenous rights guerilla group operating in Malleco province.
In February, the minister of the interior, Carolina Tohá, reported that the government of President Gabriel Boric filed legal actions against the Mapuche organization.