Editor,
On July 15, 2017 a Jesus statue was placed next to Normand Binette’s gravestone at the St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Biddeford.
Not knowing it was required to ask permission, that statue was installed. The statue wasn’t the greatest in condition, so decision was made by Mr. Binette ‘s son and daughter-in-law to purchase a new statue at the abbey store in Scarborough.
The new statue was installed on April 22, 2018. The new statue was in the exact location of the original statue that had stood for almost a year.
The reason we thought it was appropriate to put a statue there is because the cemetery is filled with statues that are standalone. We went to check on it several days later and found it was gone and the site was cleaned up removing any stones that may have fallen off when the statue’s new loam base was put in place and the statue was gone.
We started driving around the cemetery to see if somebody may have stolen it and it was nowhere to be found. I personally never received a call and my mother never received a call to ask why the statue was there if it wasn’t acceptable and let us know that somebody would remove it.
After a thorough search, we went to the front office area that was closed and there happened to be a dumpster that I tried to look into to see if there was a possibility that it was destroyed and thrown in it. It was locked with a padlock in a chain, but the arm that closes over the two covers could be pulled out enough to open a cover-up.
I proceeded to open the cover and lo and behold there was the statue we had on my father’s grave. thrown in the dumpster and covered over with foam sheets so you couldn’t see what it was.
I went home called the office for the cemetery located in Saco and left a very lengthy message about what had taken place. I asked them who gave them permission to take that out of that spot as it was cemented in place and it weighed about 150 pounds. It wasn’t someone who walked up to it and carried away, it was the cemetery people who had done that.
I told them what they did is illegal as far as I’m concerned because talking to the people at the abbey when Jesus was removed, it wasn’t destroyed, it was to be buried like a human being. This is the policy of the Catholic Church.
I told him to call me soon as they got my message so we could talk about why a brand-new Jesus statue was put into a dumpster. I called again on Friday after we noticed it and they wouldn’t answer the phone. I talked to the front secretary and she said the girl was in the office, she would not answer the phone.
I then left another message telling her that I would elevate this to the top priest in Saco and if he didn’t do anything I would go to the bishop. Again I received no response from anyone in that organization.
Now after this all took place, my mother received a letter notifying her that the statue will be removed because it’s not authorized to be there. She never received any other notifications or requests. The date on the envelope with the letter that was sent to her it shows it was sent after all of this happened.
I just think it needs to be advertised that they don’t follow the rules that they tell people they enforce.
Norm Binette, Jr.
Biddeford
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