Santa Fe Archbishop Michael Sheehan has blessed an Albuquerque church just days after a man stabbed three churchgoers in a bizarre attack.
Sheehan reconsecrated St. Jude Thaddeus Church on Wednesday by sprinkling holy water and spreading incense through the church.
The Catholic ritual is required after a sacrilege has been committed at a church.
Police say the 24-year-old Lawrence Capener attacked a choir leader at the church at the end of Sunday Mass. Two others were stabbed when they tried to stop him.
He is charged with aggravated battery and is being held on $250,000 bail.
Parishioners said they rarely saw Capener attend services but were aware that his mother is active in the church.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.