A Catholic church in Brazil has been desecrated with all 28 statues of saints destroyed, causing pain and outrage of the faithful.

The attack took place around noon on Monday in São Mateus church in the town of São Mateus do Sul located in Paraná state in southern Brazil.

“Our statues were broken, but our faith is firm,” said the pastor of the parish, Father José Carlos Emanoel dos Santos, at a press conference.

The priest stressed that “evangelical brothers” also sent notes repudiating the vandalism, “something that we also appreciate.”

Father Diego Ronaldo Nakalski, parochial vicar, said that whoever destroyed the images “closed the doors to commit this atrocity and left only one side door open through which he probably left.”

“It seemed that we were at war to see everything destroyed. The images refer us to something greater, to something of heaven. When the people saw them broken, the feeling was of very great pain, horrific,” lamented the priest.