Priest shocks with ‘evil’ vandalism

FOX 5 NY’s Kendall Green shows us the latest Halloween costumes that are popular this year.

Halloween is just around the corner, but the global tradition has not gone down well with Father Jaromir Smejkal, who believes it is a “satanic festival.”

Father Smejkal, from Kurdejov, a village in the Czech Republic, saw an exhibition of carved pumpkins near his church and stomped on them until they were completely destroyed.

The children behind the carvings were devastated when they discovered their ruined inventions, and some were reportedly in tears.

They got to work carving new pumpkins and left them in the park so it would happen again the next night.

The next day the pumpkins appeared to have been thrown away again.

Shocking photos have been posted to Facebook, showing the pumpkins completely unrecognizable from their former selves.

Father Smejkal admitted to stomping on the Halloween display.

In his apology, posted on the village’s Facebook page, Father Smejkal said he would not have destroyed the pumpkins if he had known they had been carefully made by children.

But that was really as far as his sorry message went.

The priest is part of the Roman Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist, which considers Halloween an abomination to his religion.

And he made it abundantly clear in what else he said in his so-called apology.

“As I left the rectory on Sunday evening, I saw numerous symbols of the satanic festival of ‘Halloween’ placed in front of our sacred grounds,” he wrote.

“I acted according to my faith and duty to be a father and protector of the children entrusted to me and removed these symbols…

“But try to remember that it is my duty as an authority figure and a priest to protect children and families from hidden evil.”

He went on to say that the concept of Halloween was created in a “pagan, contemporary world.”