SÃO PAULO – A woman attacked a 2-year-old girl and her parents with pepper spray during Mass on Jun. 22 after allegedly being annoyed by the child’s behavior.

The case happened in the church of Nossa Senhora do Desterro (Our Lady of Exile) in Jundiaí, a city on the outskirts of São Paulo, Brazil.

Witnesses said that all the pews were occupied, and a number of children were walking by the corridors, but there was no particular disturbance during the Mass.

“I saw that girl walking by the central corridor. She was not crying nor shouting, just walking. And her mother was coming behind her,” Lina Ramazotti, who often takes part in Masses in that church, told Crux.

According to Márcio Vieira de Sousa, who was sitting at the back of the church, the incident took place just after Communion.

“From the place where I was sitting, we couldn’t hear any kind of noise coming from the children. We were meditating after Eucharist, the atmosphere was one of silence,” he recalled.

Suddenly, people began to run towards the exit doors and the smell of the pepper gas rapidly spread all over the place, the witnesses described.

“Everybody started to get up and move and I didn’t understand what was going on. Then I saw a kind of smoke and felt a terrible smell of pepper. It looked like I ate a lot of pepper at once. It was terrible,” Ramazotti said.

She had been undergoing an allergic respiratory crisis that week and the gas made her cough and feel dizzy.

De Sousa said he thought a “terrorist attack” was happening.

“Suddenly I saw people panicking and running. An old lady was out of breath and people tried to help her. Then I felt the pepper gas irritating my nose and my throat and understood that somebody had sprayed it,” he said.

On the square in front of the temple, a group of men was surrounding the car of Livia Ponzoni de Abreu, a 41-year-old physician, the woman who used the spray against the child.

“She was trying to move, and people were hitting the car with objects and shouting at her. Apparently, pedestrians who had not been in the Mass were doing so, it was a kind of herd effect,” de Sousa said.

Footage of that moment shows a group of men trying to destroy de Abreu’s car, hitting it with pieces of wood. Father Rafael de Godoy, who was celebrating the Mass, is seen approaching the group and talking to the woman. The police arrived shortly later.

De Abreu was taken to a police station. She claimed that she used the spray to defend herself, but ended up being arrested. On the following day, she paid a bail of $ 5,700 and left jail. She’ll face a police inquiry and is forbidden to frequent churches in the region. According to the local press, the kind of pepper spray used by her is illegal in Brazil.

The toddler had burns on her lips and hands and had to be taken to a hospital. Her parents were also hit during the argument with de Abreu. Her father had an allergic reaction on his wrists.

“Over the past days they received treatment and they’re all well now,” Father Silvio Andrei, the Diocese of Jundiaí’s spokesman, told Crux.

Andrei said it was an “isolated event, a disproportionate reaction of a single person, given that witnesses said the children were not noisy during that Mass.”

“Coincidentally, the theme of our most recent clergy meeting in the Diocese was how to draw children and teenagers to the church and create a favorable environment for them to pray. Our church has been welcoming, that was an exceptional occurrence,” Andrei said.

He recalled Jesus’s predilection for children and Pope Francis’s message to welcome them in the church.

“All the clergy have been more prepared to deal with kids, even with those with autism spectrum disorder or hyperactivity, who many times face difficulties to remain on a pew for an hour,” he said.

Bishop Arnaldo Carvalheiro Neto of Jundiaí gathered with the girl’s parents on Jun. 24, prayed with them and reaffirmed the Church’s commitment to welcoming families.

“I hope that event will not drive away parents who bring their children to Mass,” Andrei said.

The girl’s father, who preferred to remain anonymous, told local TV Tem that his family received with concern the news that the woman had been released from jail and is worried that she might be targeting them. He also said that they will file a civil lawsuit against her.