With the prospect of a Mischief Night attack looming, local ministry leader Rudy Valentino enlisted the help of three other concerned residents to protect a recently abandoned statue of Jesus that was bound to a pole in Goldstar Park.
Valentino, of the 2500 block of Alder Street, rounded up two roofers from the Northeast, Joe Beuller and Darren Morgan, and another South Philly resident, Al Coya, to help him attend to the statue on Friday.
While they secured a pickup truck to move the statue from the 600 block of Wharton Street, the weight of the 500-pound figure had the men considering the possibility that they would be unable to haul it before nightfall.
In that event, all four men had pledged to stand guard and protect the statue for 24 hours, but it appears that someone might have intervened when the situation looked its bleakest.
"We really didn’t think we were going to be able to move it, so we just started praying," Valentino said. "Next thing you know, we got the statue up on the truck with no problem. I think God helped us out."
Once loaded on the truck, the statue embarked on a short journey to its new home at St. Casimir Church, Third and Wharton, where it was welcomed with open arms by the Rev. Peter Burkauskas.
Valentino said the priest and a group of schoolchildren came out and prayed for the men and the statue, which is temporarily bound to a pole again.
The religious figure’s future had been uncertain since early September, when the small garden property in which it stood was sold. The new owner of the lot informed neighbors that the statue would have to be moved.
The statue will have a permanent shrine built for it in St. Casimir, where neighbors hope it will once again stand as an untouched beacon of hope and love for the neighborhood.
Members of the American Academy of the Sacred Arts at 1629 Porter St. also had offered to take in the statue.
