This includes a specific alarm dedicated strictly to the area surrounding and including the sanctuary. “I would say the most obvious and important is that we have installed advanced alarm systems that cover the entirety of the church. Louis King of France in New Orleans, said cathedral officials “go to great lengths to ensure that we maintain the sanctity and security of our beautiful cathedral.” He also described designing and making a bronze gate for a tabernacle.īut if thieves have time, will and power tools, Ziegler said, it’s hard to stop them.įather Philip Landry, rector of the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Ziegler, an architect who designs altars, tabernacles and shrines for churches all around the country, described in a telephone interview incorporating a pressure alarm for a crown he made for a church in Dallas. Ziegler Co., a family business in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Another thing would be to put more gates around the tabernacle that would become part of the tabernacle,” said Jerome Ziegler, who works in design sales for F.C. This past week, the Register asked several experts how theft and desecration can be stopped. ![]() But the theft of a valuable tabernacle is also painful because the people in the parish rightly took pride in the sacrifices and generosity of their ancestors, who wanted to glorify and honor the Lord by creating a beautiful place to keep the consecrated Hosts.” “So, on one level, the desecration of the Eucharist is clearly something that pains us more than the loss of a material object. Conference of Catholic Bishops, by email. Therefore, we give the consecrated Host, the Eucharist, the devotion and respect and adoration that we owe to our Savior,” said Father Andrew Menke, executive director of the Secretariat of Divine Worship for the U.S. Catholics believe that the bread that’s brought forward at Mass becomes the true Body of Jesus himself, even if its appearance doesn’t change. “We can’t put a monetary price on the value of a consecrated Host. And it would cost half a million to replace, easily.”įor Catholics, the true worth of the tabernacle is connected to its purpose, which is to hold consecrated Hosts. “It’s probably the most elaborate tabernacle in the country. So you’ll see there are a lot of engagement and wedding-ring diamonds on the front of that. All of that metal and jewels, all the jewels, were donated by parishioners. And it has diamonds and other jewels decorating it. It’s solid silver, coated with 18-carat gold. “It’s a gold tabernacle by the architect Alfred Parfitt. Augustine’s explained why the tabernacle is worth so much money during a video tour in a series called City of Churches produced about 2013 by New Evangelization Television.įather Robert Whelan described the tabernacle this way: Police told The New York Times that the security cameras in the church were not working the pastor told the newspaper that even if they were, the thieves took the digital recorder that would have stored the video.Ī former pastor of St. The sculpted angels around the recess were destroyed and, amid debris from the extensive cutting the burglars did with power tools to pry the tabernacle loose, were consecrated Hosts strewn about the altar. He went in and found the tabernacle gone. The pastor, Father Frank Tumino, told parishioners he was driving by the church that Saturday afternoon to hear confessions at St. New York City police offer a 45 1/2-hour window for when the theft may have taken place: between 6:30pm Thursday, May 26 and 4pm Saturday, May 28. ![]() ![]() The two churches are 1 mile apart, on the same street. Francis Xavier, which also has all the weekday Masses in the ordinary schedule. Francis Xavier are combined parishes under one pastor, who lives at the rectory of St.
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