DAILY Photo by John Godbey The Rev. Joe Culotta of Annunciation of the Lord Catholic Church discusses Sunday s attack. Children were scared and people were crying, he said.

Church-service assault
Assailants disrupt 11 a.m. Mass at Annunciation of the Lord, breaking altar; felony charges filed

By Ronnie Thomas
DAILY Staff Writer
rthomas@decaturdaily.com 340-2438

What would seem to be among the safest places in America came under attack Sunday morning at Annunciation of the Lord Catholic Church on Spring Avenue Southwest.

Val Loughman

Emily Loughman

Adam Turgeon

Lisa Wagner

Hartselle residents face first-degree criminal mischief charges

After communion at the 11 a.m. Mass, a man and woman came forward, screaming.

Then, to the shock and horror of the Rev. Joe Culotta and his congregation, the man turned over the cherished century-old marble altar. It tumbled down the steps and smashed onto the floor, ripping up carpet in front of the first-row pews.

Men from the congregation subdued five people and held them for Decatur police. Detective Todd Walker said no one was injured.

Officers arrested Val Eugene Loughman, 20; his wife, Emily Beth Loughman, 21; Adam Joseph Turgeon, 27; and Lisa Marie Wagner, 26, all of Hartselle. Walker said that "another girl with them was not charged."

He said the four lived together at 1004 Mitweed St. Police charged them with first-degree criminal mischief, a Class C felony, and they were in the Morgan County Jail on Sunday night, each held in lieu of $750 bond.

Walker said Wagner moved to Hartselle from Connecticut and Turgeon from New Hampshire.

John and Jeanne Morris and her mother, 88-year-old Maxine Steele, saw the events unfold up close.

"We were in the front-row pew, on the left side facing the altar. The two people who caused the commotion sat on the right side," Jeanne Morris said. "A mother and her two small children, probably 3 and 5 years old, sat between us."

Arrived late

Morris said the two strangers came in late, about 11:40 a.m. Morris said as she looked at them, she wondered about their dress.

"It was shocking to me. He had on dark pants and a dark blue shirt with scribbling on the front," Morris said. "He had long dark hair that fell past his shoulders, so dark it appeared as if it might have been dyed.

"He reminded me of someone from the 1960s, a pot-smoking hippie. He was about 6 feet tall and very thin."

Morris said the woman wore bluejean shorts and "crazy tights with big black diamonds all over them, like the Joker in a deck of cards, and a T-shirt."

But Morris recalled at one point thinking how wonderful it was that they were there.

"I thought they probably were on vacation or maybe from out of town and didn't know what time Mass started," she said. "They came in right before communion."

Morris said the man and woman leaped from their seats and went to the front and stood near Father Culotta.

"They were screaming something about Catholics worshipping idols and other things. I was so stunned, I didn't hear it all," she said. "The man then went behind the altar and pushed it over. If it had not been so heavy and had not gone straight down the steps, someone would have been hurt, probably those little children sitting near us."

Morris said a stoutly built parishioner who appeared to have had military or police training charged up from behind the man and put his fingers in the loop of his jeans.

"He grabbed the man's hair with his other hand and wrapped it around his hand, subduing him," she said. "My husband grabbed the girl, who had started to run away, in a bear hug."

Morris said three other people were at the back and that it soon became evident they were together.

Meanwhile, Jan Gile of Decatur was in the covered gathering place out front of the sanctuary.

"Those of us there could hear noise and knew that something was wrong," she said. "I looked up and saw people going toward the altar. I thought maybe someone might be attacking the pastor."

Gile said she soon had a general idea of what was happening and called the police.

"The men of the church brought the five people out to one of the benches outside," she said. "Members of the church gathered around them and began talking to them. I could not hear the conversations, but it appeared to be civil talk."

Morris said she was never so proud of Culotta.

'Call the police'

"He was seated when it started, then he rose. Of course, he was shocked, and his eyes widened," she said. "I knew what that altar meant to him. Then he calmly turned and said, 'Call the police.' "

She said after order was restored, he talked calmly to the people.

"We had a lot of elderly people there," she said. "A woman behind me was sobbing uncontrollably, and crying out loud. I know upset how the father (Culotta) was, but it didn't show."

Newspaper article

Morris said Culotta told the congregation that "this may have something to do with the article in the newspaper Saturday."

DAILY Religion writer Melanie B. Smith wrote a story titled "Honoring the Saints."

But if that were the case, Morris said, she doesn't believe they read the whole article.

DAILY Photo by John Godbey A replacement altar stands in the sanctuary of Annunciation of the Lord Catholic Church in Decatur on Sunday night. The altar replaces a century-old marble altar that a man pushed over during Sunday s 11 a.m. Mass. The marble altar tumbled down the steps and smashed onto the floor, damaging a portion of the carpet, foreground.

"If they had, they would have seen that we do not worship saints," she said.

"I will give an analogy. It's the same thing as having pictures of your father and mother. You look at them and remember what kind of people they are. It's the same way for Catholics in regard to saints. It's a remembrance. They died for their faith."

Culotta said the choir was closing the communion song when the attack began.

"We take a moment to be still and be quiet. When I opened my eyes, I noticed a man and woman sitting in the front pew I didn't recognize," he said. "Ten or 15 seconds later, they came up to the platform of the sanctuary, saying 'This is idolatry, you are worshipping false ideas, and these are end times.' He went in the back of the altar and pushed it over. It was unreal."

Culotta said the man's action is like someone going into your home and taking one of your most prized possessions and smashing it.

"We just had communion at this altar," the pastor said. "They defiled what's sacred to us. It was made from the original altar at St. Ann (the predecessor church downtown). Children were scared, and people were crying."

But Culotta said the congregation "prayed for those who had just done this. We asked the Lord to be forgiving and to help us to make sense of why something so senseless happens."

He said that after the incident, the church dedicated the month of October to the Virgin Mary and sought her intercession, that "we can all live as brothers and sisters."

Culotta said the sanctuary was in such disarray that Spanish-speaking worshippers, meeting at 1 p.m., had to congregate in the gathering place, where members brought a substitute altar.

'Sad occasion'

"After the police came, I had all of the parishioners tidying up, and I have never received so many hugs in my life as today," Culotta said. "We had all shared in this hurt. It's great to have good from it. We will be stronger after this. But this was a very sad occasion."

Culotta would not allow media to take photographs of the shattered altar, which had been moved in pieces to a storage area.

"Photos would glorify violence," he said.

Church member Don Kyle, who is mayor of Decatur, said he believes a lot of people "get a lot of misinformation about the Roman Catholic Church and other denominations. And some form of frustration shows up from time to time, and you never know the circumstances.

"You just can't explain how people think sometimes. But this certainly doesn't appear to be a rational act."

Kyle added, "We are a pretty hardy bunch, and I don't believe this will impact us at all in a negative way."

Member Annette Lincoln said when she heard about what had happened, she was glad she went to the 8 a.m. Mass.

"At first, I was scared and I was like 'How could these people do this, and is it going to happen somewhere else?' Then I got mad and wished I had been there. I could have thrown my purse."

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