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Priest Effigy Angers Parents

Halloween Display Located Across Catholic School

POSTED: 9:04 a.m. CDT October 18, 2002
UPDATED: 9:14 a.m. CDT October 18, 2002

An effigy of a child-molesting priest hanging outside a home in a South Side neighborhood has angered some parents whose children attend a Catholic school across the street.

Art Hernandez, who lives on Monterey Street, and his brother, the Rev. Phil Hernandez, said they decided to create the effigy because of the priest-sex abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church earlier this year.

"Its not a popular thing," said Phil Hernandez, a pastor at Redemption Baptist Church. "We're not here to win a popularity contest. We just want them to open their eyes."

"She's got a bunch of demons out there in her yard," Art Hernandez said while pointing to a neighbor's Halloween display. "She's got demons out there. People glorify that stuff, so I put my demon over here."

Some parents who were dropping off their children at St. John Bosco Catholic School on Thursday said the Hernandez brothers have abused the First Amendment and the effigy scares children.

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"It's very offensive," said a mother of a St. John Bosco student. "And it's also very scary."

"He might be a child molestor himself," a man said. "Why would anybody think of something like that to scare the kids, you know?"

The principal at St. John Bosco told KSAT 12 News that he is extremely disappointed that someone living so close to the campus would send a message of what he calls hate.

"The fact is that they are ignorant of the scriptures," Phil Hernandez said. "They call us hate mongers. But, in reality who is doing the hatred here? They hate us for what we're doing. Anyone who does name the name of Christ who is a true, born-again Christian would be supporting this, not opposing it."

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