The exterior of a local Methodist church was vandalized early Sunday morning for the second time in five months.

A custodian at St. Paul's United Methodist Church, 109 McAllister St., reported to the State College Police Department that he found graffiti on the church at about 7:20 a.m. Sunday.

A red and blue stripe was spray painted on the building's McAllister Street side, and an unidentifiable design, the numbers "666" and the words, "John Paul II rest in peace" were found spray painted on the front door and concrete landing.

Police said the incident occurred sometime between midnight and 7 a.m. While police have no suspects, the charges would be institutional vandalism, a misdemeanor, State College Police Sgt. Mark Argiro said.

Argiro said the department has reason to believe the incident is related to the vandalism that occurred at St. Paul's in November. On Nov. 21, State College Police reported that an unknown actor entered the church and wrote "666" on the walls throughout the sanctuary.

However, State College Police Sgt. Dana Leonard said he could not comment on the November incident because it is still under investigation.

"We look for the common denominator in each case and in both cases, [St. Paul's] was the only area that was tagged, so it's a possibility they were related," Leonard said. "But at the same time we can't rule out that they were separate cases."

Leonard said both cases are under investigation, and added that a possible hate crime has not been eliminated. "Vandalism at an institution like a church is more serious, so we're not ruling anything out," Leonard said.

Argiro said Sunday's incident is probably not related to an on-campus vandalism case being investigated by Penn State University Police. In that incident, the word "tang" was spray painted on several buildings on campus, including the new School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture building. A fire was also set in the building, which police are investigating as arson.

Penn State police said there are still no leads or suspects in the on-campus investigation.