A priest has been forced to apologize after he destroyed children’s Halloween pumpkin decorations two days in a row in an act of vandalism.
Halloween is just across the corner but the worldwide tradition didn’t sit well with Father Jaromir Smejkal who believes it’s a “satanic feast”.
Father Smejkal, from Kurdejov, a village within the Czech Republic, spotted a display of carved out pumpkins near his church and stamped throughout them until they were entirely destroyed.
The kids behind the carvings were devastated to find their ruined inventions, and a few were reportedly in tears.
They set to work carving recent pumpkins and left them within the park, just for it to occur again the subsequent night.
The following day, the pumpkins were found to have once more been trashed.
Shocking photos were posted to Facebook, which shows the pumpkins completely unrecognizable from their former selves.
Father Smejkal admitted to stomping on the Halloween display.
In his apology, posted on the village Facebook page, Father Smejkal said he wouldn’t have destroyed the pumpkins if he’d known that they had been fastidiously crafted by children.
Nevertheless, that was really so far as his sorry message went.
The priest is a component of the Roman Catholic Church of St John the Baptist, who sees Halloween as anathema to his religion.
And he made the abundantly clear in what else he said in his so-called apology.