Ill-spirited acts haunt churches in Bucks

A run of troubling episodes at three Levittown-area churches have led some to ask whether the devil is at work in Lower Bucks County.

In mid-January, a priest in Tullytown says, two visitors approached him after Sunday Mass and introduced themselves with a "demonic" term.

On Feb. 9, police say, a man in a sweatshirt bearing Satanic symbols accosted the priest of a Falls Township church and demanded, unsuccessfully, to be let into the locked sanctuary.

Later that day, vulgarities were found carved into the oaken door of the Tullytown church. And that night, vandals struck a third church - in Middletown Township - with messages including antireligious graffiti.

"The police haven't drawn any direct line" connecting the incidents, said the Rev. Michael DiIorio, pastor of St. Michael the Archangel in Tullytown, but "we have certainly notified all of our appropriate offices" in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Two of the churches are Roman Catholic; the other is Eastern Orthodox.

Last night, Tullytown police announced the arrest of a Bristol Township woman in connection with the vandalism at DiIorio's church. Sandralee Banks-Kastrup, 40, was charged with institutional vandalism, a third-degree felony.

"Due to the sensitivity of ongoing investigations involving police agencies, we respectfully decline to provide further comment at this time," Sgt. Daniel Doyle said in a 10 p.m. news release.

It was not disclosed whether the suspect had been one of the mid-January visitors described by DiIorio. Neither did poice say whether she is being investigated in connection with the Middletown vandalism.

In recalling his encounter with the purported "demons," DiIorio said that it was not threatening, but that it came back to mind during the recent desecrations.

"There was nothing remarkable in their dress or demeanor," DiIorio recalled. "I greet every person in church after the liturgy at the main door. They made themselves last in line."

When the two visitors reached him, he said, they told him that they wanted him to know "that they had moved into the area and that now they will be here." When DiIorio asked if they wanted to register with the parish, "they had no intention of doing so."

Instead, he said, "they described themselves by names of demons. They didn't say 'Cheryl' or 'Samantha.' It was a demonic name."

DiIorio said police had told him not to provide further details, including the sex of the visitors. He did say one "would have been in her early 50s," while the second was younger.

"They didn't use the generic term demon. We're using that to guard against evidence being contaminated," DiIorio said. "But they used a name that anyone would associate with demons."

Still, he thought little of it until two weekends ago.

That Saturday, police said, the Rev. Donald Birch of St. Joseph the Worker Church in Falls Township was accosted after Mass by a man in a sweatshirt adorned with pentagrams - often associated with Satan. The man "told him he needed to get back into the church," Falls Police Lt. Ron MacPherson said.

When a parishioner walking with Birch said the church already had been locked, the man "tried to forcibly enter the church," MacPherson said. "They didn't call us because there were no threats made."

The same day, vulgarities were found carved into the solid-oak doors of DiIorio's church. "It would have taken some power behind it to do that," the priest said, but the message had nothing to do with the occult.

"You could find things like that written just about anyplace you could find graffiti, I'm afraid," he said.

That night, vandals struck Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church on Woodbourne Road in Middletown. The face of the Our Lady of Fatima shrine in the front yard was painted green, and slogans such as "God is dead" defaced the walls. A phallic symbol was painted on the front door, and the head broken off a statute of a lamb was left on the doorstep. Police found a suspected pipe bomb in a soccer field behind the church, but it turned out to be benign.

Back walls of the church were painted with green, red and yellow graffiti "tags." Similar markings were found at three nearby shopping centers close to the Oxford Valley Mall, and police have said the vandalism appears to have happened about the same time.

This past Sunday, dozens of people from other faiths and congregations in the area showed up at the church in a demonstration of support.

The harassment continued, however, at St. Michael the Archangel.

Two days after the door was carved, anti-Catholic obscenities were scrawled into a prayer-request book inside the church, DiIorio said.

And last Friday, a threatening letter was slipped into the mail slot at St. Michael's rectory, prompting an evacuation of the campus. Students had the in-service day off, but weekend sports and social activities on the grounds were canceled, and police showed up for Sunday Mass.

DiIorio declined to discuss the nature of the threat, but said that "police believe [it] should be taken very seriously" in a letter sent to parishioners.

Donna Farrell, communications director for the archdiocese, said she knew of no link between the January visitors and any of the later incidents. "It's very distressing when you not only have vandalism but also threats made against a parish," she said.

DiIorio wrote to parishioners that he was "hopeful that this situation will be resolved as quickly as possible. Please join me in prayer for our parish and school."