Thieves broke into a Brooklyn church in New York City sometime between Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon, according to police. They took off with the gold tabernacle worth 2 million dollars (1.85 million euros), making it one of the most expensive in the US. An angel statue was also beheaded.
The robbed Roman Catholic church is that of Saint Augustine, but she is better known in New York as the “Notre Dame” of the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. The church was closed to construction at the time of the theft – probably last Friday. The recordings from the surveillance cameras have also been stolen, says the priest of the church, Frank Tumino. The Brooklyn Diocese called the theft “a blatant crime of irreverence and hatred.”
It is not clear whether it was one thief or several thieves. According to the diocese, the perpetrator(s) sawed through a metal protective casing to steal the tabernacle, which dates back to the opening of the church in the 1890s. The tabernacle or sacramental house is part of the altar in which the consecrated hosts and other objects for Holy Communion are kept. The copy that was stolen was made in 1895 from 18-karat gold and decorated with jewels. It was restored in 1952 and in 2000. Estimated value: 1.85 million euros.
But the diocese considers it irreplaceable above all because of its historical and artistic value. The tabernacle is described as a “masterpiece and one of the most precious tabernacles in the country, guarded by its own security system”, and consisting of an “electronically controlled burglar-proof vault” and an inch thick steel plates that “entirely enclose the tabernacle”. Whoever stole it apparently knew what to do.
The two angel statues flanking the tabernacle were destroyed in the theft, the diocese still says. One was beheaded. Furthermore, the Holy Eucharist had been taken from the tabernacle and thrown on the altar. A safe in the sacristy, where priests prepare for Mass, was also cut open, but there was nothing in it.
Priest Frank Tumino is at the heart of it. “Something so sacred shouldn’t be cut up for sale,” he says. “For a burglar to break into the most sacred space of our beautiful church and go to great lengths to cut through a security system is an abominable act of irreverence.”
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