Statue returned

OAK RIDGE  When a family heirloom is stolen, it’s like losing a member of the family.

That’s exactly how Kathleen and George Damerel, parishioners of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish here, felt when the 110-year-old statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus they had donated to Ss. Peter and Paul Church in Brooklyn, N.Y. was stolen earlier this month.

But that sense of loss turned to joy May 13 when they were informed by a spokesperson for the Brooklyn Diocese that a passerby had found the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in a trash can a few blocks away from the rectory of Ss. Peter and Paul Church. Carolyn Erstad, the spokeswoman, said, “A young man found it and gave it to his mother, but when they saw the news reports and realized where the statue belonged, they called the church and returned it.”

The Damerels donated the statue to the Brooklyn parish in 2012 just before Christmas after they read that the parish had its statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus stolen. Four years later during the first week of May, thieves stole the statue the Damerels had donated. But this time a surveillance video captured the theft in progress. The video then went viral on news websites and social media.

“When we donated it, we were happy the statue would have a home that really needed it and appreciated it, ” Kathleen Damerel said. The statue — a family heirloom — belonged to Damerel’s grandmother and she remembers it being displayed at her grandmother’s home in Troy, N.Y. “My grandmother was an extremely devout Catholic and a wonderful woman. I remember that she would pray before the statue, which was on top of her dresser, twice daily. I thought she would be very pleased when we found a new home for the statue,” she said.

After her grandmother died, Damerel’s aunt received the statue before it was passed down to Damerel and placed in her Oak Ridge home, where it had been for decades. After checking with their five children and seven grandchildren, the Damerels decided that instead of passing down the statue to one of their offspring, the Brooklyn parish would be the perfect new home to have the statue displayed prominently after the theft of its statue.

“We had no connection to the parish but thought it was a great place to donate the statue. When we read about the statue being stolen, we contacted the parish and they were delighted to have it. My husband refurbished it to look brand new and we brought it over to Brooklyn,” said Damerel.

In Brooklyn, Father Manuel de Jesus Rodriguez, who was pastor at the time, welcomed the couple and gave them a tour of the church and the local area and showed them where the statue would be displayed.

“It’s great that the statue is back at the parish,” a happy Damerel told The Beacon last week. “It’s in a perfect place where many of the faithful can see it every day.”