"Very Insulting": Black Madonna Desecrated With BLM Graffiti in the Netherlands

Please pray for peace in our world!

Vandals desecrated a monument dedicated to Our Lady of Częstochowa in Breda, a city in the southern Netherlands. Catholics also consider this image the Black Madonna.

Here’s a photo of the desecration below:

@Visegrad24, Twitter

The post reads, “The Black Madonna in Breda has been defaced and vandalized with the letters BLM. / The mosaic is dedicated to Polish soldiers of General Maczek, who liberated the city in 1944 from the German Nazis. / We denounce this act of vandalism, which is offensive to Poles and Catholics.”

Here’s the enlarged photo:

@Visegrad24, Twitter

Breda’s city mayor Paul Depla condemned the vandalism as “sad” for the Polish community in Breda.

“This is never justifiable,” Depla told BN DeStem. This is “extra sad for the Polish community for whom the statue has an important value.”

Former chairman of the General Maczek Museum Frans Ruczynski also told BN DeStem that “this is very insulting to the Polish community.”

“The original icon of the Black Madonna is located in Czestochowa in southern Poland. It is a place of pilgrimage. Every Pole goes there at least once in his life.

“When the Polish pope arrived, a million Poles approached. People crawl to it on their knees,” Ruczynski continued.

“If you daub the Breda version of the Black Madonna, it will be felt. Polish people are very religious. Every Sunday, they go to church with hundreds in Breda. Why would you want to hurt them?

“We don’t know if it comes from the left or right corner. But when it comes to Black Lives Matter, I don’t understand it. The Black Madonna has nothing to do with oppression at all.”

Black Lives Matter in Breda held a protest approximately one week ago about a half a mile from the monument. BLM spokesperson Patrick van Lunteren said he does not know why this happened.

“We do not know who it comes from, but if it is someone who feels empowered by the demonstration…we don’t think that’s acceptable. This hurts the Polish community and that is not the intention.”

The news outlet also reported that because the image is a mosaic, “This will entail specialist work” for removal. However,reports said the graffiti is now removed.

Here’s photos of the original monument:

Pellynl, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL

Here’s a photo of the desecration below:

Here’s the enlarged photo:

Here’s photos of the original monument:

Our Lady of Częstochowa, please pray for us! 🙏🙏🙏