Vandals smash windows of 41 cars at Notre Dame Seminary

Four vandals roamed through the campus of Notre Dame Seminary early Friday morning (Feb. 28) and in a 26-minute rampage smashed the windows of 41 cars, most of them owned by seminarians.

Father James Wehner, rector-president of Notre Dame Seminary, said no one was injured during the vandalism, and there were no reports of items stolen from the seminarians’ cars, many of which had rosaries hanging from the rear-view mirror and saints’ prayer cards on the dashboard.

The seminary is located on a busy thoroughfare at 2901 South Carrollton Ave.

Security camera footage shows the perpetrators driving up in a car to the semicircular parking area in front of the seminary’s main building at approximately 4:45 a.m.

Father Wehner said the vandals first hit 13 cars parked in that location and then drove around the campus to Fig Street, where they jumped a 6-foot fence to gain access to a side parking lot, where they smashed the windows of an additional 28 cars. In total, the cars of 36 seminarians and five priests, two of them visiting from other dioceses, were damaged.

Father Wehner said there is surveillance camera footage indicating there were four perpetrators. The attack began at approximately 4:45 a.m. The surveillance footage shows them leaving at 5:11 a.m.

A steel, pronged hammer with a red rubber grip was found lying in the parking lot next to the car that was among the last to be hit, Father Wehner said.

Father Wehner was exercising in the seminary gymnasium at the time of the vandalism, but he said no one heard the windows being smashed.

“But some of the seminarians did hear a couple of car alarms going off,” Father Wehner said. “That went on for about a half-hour.”

For Father Kurt Young, a priest of the Archdiocese of New Orleans and faculty member at the seminary, this was the second time his car window had been smashed in less than two months in his regular parking spot to the left of the main seminary building.
           
“The first time it was the driver’s side front, and now it’s the passenger side front, so at least they balanced it out for me,” Father Young said.
           
Father Wehner said the seminary would defray the cost of the window repairs, which could run to more than $12,000.  

“Doing the math on that, 40 times $300 a window is a lot,” he said.

The two out-of-town priests whose cars were hit were Father Patrick Riviere, a 2019 alumnus of Notre Dame Seminary and a priest of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, and Father Joshua Neu, the director of vocations for the Diocese of Tyler (Texas). Father Riviere was in town to give a lecture on discernment to second-year seminarians, and Father Neu was visiting seminarians from his diocese.

The seminarians whose cars were vandalized met at 10:30 a.m. in the seminary dining room to fill out paperwork for the police and insurance.

Father Wehner said this was the broadest attack on property at the seminary in recent years. Last summer, a person was arrested for stealing seminarians’ bicycles.

Normally, all the seminarians park their cars in the fenced area to the rear of the main building, but Father Wehner said heavy enrollment has required some to park at night in an open area in front of the seminary.

“This is the first year where seminarians have to park because they can’t all fit back there,” Father Wehner said. “This year, we’re completely filled back there.”

One seminarians looked at the bright side – his left front window was smashed but fell forward onto the pavement.

“They were nice enough not to get the glass inside my car,” he said.

Anyone interested in helping the seminary defray costs not covered by insurance can call the seminary at (504) 866-7426.