On the evening of the 13th of this month, The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God’s (UCKG) spiritual help center in Faro was vandalized. A man who appeared to be in his 40’s invaded and destroyed the church with a tractor taken from a nearby construction site.

Various media groups reported on this unfortunate event, raising questions about the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Some reported that the cause of this attack was that the institution was in debt to the man, while others said that he had sold some personal items and donated the money to the church. All of the information that was published or broadcast was hearsay, based solely on the opinions of the crowd that gathered outside after the incident.

The UCKG would like to thank the state and local police authorities for their immediate intervention, which assisted in the identifying and capturing of the man responsible for this act, which in our eyes was totally reprehensible.

Neither the church nor any of its representatives, both local and national, were contacted at any time after the break-in by any media organization or given the opportunity to explain or present their version of what took place.

The UCKG has been established in Portugal for 20 years. During this time it has been serving and assisting the Portuguese community both socially and spiritually, helping those who want to be helped. Giving a fair chance for all sides to state their version of what happened, before the spreading of any type of information, is the least expected from the media of this “free” country.

In this case, the published reports were based on unverified claims; this contradicts basic journalistic ethics for any media professional that seeks to report accurate, truthful and unbiased facts.

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God has no problem commenting on the situation, given that the man in question has no connection with the church. He was never a member, let alone performed any type of work for UCKG at any time.

This was an unwarranted act of violence, prejudice and fanaticism from a person who is clearly disturbed, who allowed himself to be manipulated by a media even more reckless than he.

We would also like to state that the church will press charges for case N° 999/10.9 PBFAR to sue the perpetrator of this crime for both criminal and civil liability.