MAHANOY CITY, Pennsylvania (LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic church’s Adoration chapel was partly damaged after a vandal set off dynamite.
Mahanoy City police announced that Kyle Kuczynski, 32, was taken into custody after allegedly planting dynamite inside Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Church’s Adoration chapel on May 6. Surveillance footage showed a man entering the chapel and dropping the explosive before running off. Moments later, the explosive went off, damaging the Eucharistic monstrance, three stained glass windows, and part of a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and knocking a few Stations of the Cross off the wall, according to local newspaper the Republican Herald.
The Adoration chapel explosion is the latest in a wave of anti-Catholic crimes in the U.S.
NEW: Catholics in a small town in Pennsylvania saw a very different kind of white smoke on Tuesday after a man detonated an explosive in a Catholic church.
32-year-old Kyle Kuczynski was caught on surveillance footage lighting dynamite on the altar of the adoration chapel of St.… pic.twitter.com/odJy90Dlrk
— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) May 8, 2025
Kuczynski was charged with felony arson, reckless burning or exploding, possessing an explosive or incendiary material, risking a catastrophe, institutional vandalism, criminal mischief, and ethnic intimidation, per the Herald.
Blessed Teresa’s pastor, Father Kevin Gallagher, told the Herald the incident saddened him.
“[Kuczynski] knew exactly what he was doing,” the priest said.
“Belief in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist is central to the Catholic Faith. To use an explosive device to destroy the Blessed Sacrament is an act of darkest evil,” Bishop Alfred Schlert of the Allentown diocese said in a statement.
READ: Kansas Catholic church desecrated ahead of satanist ‘black mass’ outside state capitol
While the bishop thanked God that no one was injured and the suspect was in custody, he stressed the evil of the heinous crime.
“[I] am heartbroken that such a heinous, hateful, and evil act occurred at St. Teresa of Calcutta. This act of religious hate is an affront to the long and devout history of faith among the people of Mahanoy City,” Bishop Schlert said.
“While offering forgiveness, I pray the person who perpetrated this crime will receive the help needed and the justice demanded for their actions,” he added.
Several desecrations of Catholic churches and other anti-Catholic crimes have been reported this year. In March, a group of satanists desecrated a Wichita, Kansas, church ahead of a “black mass” celebrated outside the state capitol building. Less than a month later, a Kansas priest was fatally shot inside his church rectory.
READ: ‘Heartbroken’ Archbishop Naumann urges prayers for Kansas priest fatally shot in rectory
