Vandals burn statue

AS Puerto Rico police began investigating the burning of a statue of the Madonna in San Juan, Cardinal Luis Aponte of San Juan revealed that he had received a series of threats before crowning it as patroness of Puerto Rico.
The threats preceded the crowning of a sculpture of Our Lady of Providence and the Child, which had been recently restored in Spain. A smaller replica which toured the island as pad of a Marian Year was decapitated during its stop at the old cathedral of San Juan. The head is still missing.
In the float which carried it, Cardinal Aponte said, a message was found reading: "Archbishop, I will call you to render an account, for you are perverting the people." A second message was found before the ceremonies on the pedestal holding the crown. It said: "Soon Jehovah shall judge your idolatry with which you have deceived and perverted my people". Cardinal Aponte and ther cardinals and bishops from Latin America went ahead with the crowning ceremonies. The San Juan archbishop said: "The match that charred the Marian statue also rekindled the love of Puerto Ricans for Mary." He later a:snounced that the newly proclaimed patron saint of Puerto Rico would be known as "The Charred Virgin of Providence."
'The statue was returned from the Roberto Clemente stadium, where the ceremony was held, to its altar at' Santa Tercsita, and iiccording to Church iattiorities, will not be restored, uuL lett in its present condition as a reminder of anti-Catholic vandalism.
Unconfirmed reports attributed the burning to an extremist Protestant sect known for opposing the Catholic veneration of holy images.