Franciscans' statue of Jesus is stolen

For the third time in two years, thieves have hit the Little Brothers of St. Francis in Roxbury. Over the weekend, someone carried off a small figure of the Sacred Heart of Jesus when the prior target, a larger statue of St. Francis of Assisi, apparently proved too heavy to move.

Brother James Curran, founder of the small order that has ministered to the poor and homeless in the area since 1970, said that the brothers have not prosecuted previous offenders and have no intention of prosecuting this time.

"But if it is sitting like a trophy in some college dorm," Curran said, "we'd very much like to get it back."

The statue apparently was taken early Sunday, the first day of Advent and the beginning of the Christmas season.

Curran said that the reason he thinks the statue, a 3 1/2-foot-tall concrete image of Jesus gesturing toward his heart, was taken by college students in the area is that students previously took the 5-foot-tall St. Francis statue and brought it back in response to leaflets distributed on nearby campuses appealing for its return.

He would not identify which of the four or five major schools in the area had been leafletted in the past and added that the brothers wound up having coffee and conversation with the students after the statue was returned.

This time, the thieves apparently decided to take the statue of Jesus after trying and failing to detach the larger statue from granite foundation stones that made it too heavy to carry away. The statute of Jesus with its foundation stones, which also are missing, weighs about 100 pounds, Curran said, while the St. Francis with foundation stones weighs about 200 pounds.

"We are trying to make this little corner of our neighborhood a focus of friendliness and security," Curran said of the Franciscan brothers' two-building compound at the intersection of Parker and Hillside streets, "but unfortunately it also is a focal point of students on Friday and Saturday nights when they are a little slathered up."