Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Cost of Christmas thievery adds up for Prague church

In an ironic twist, three thieves stole money from Christmas collection boxes at a church that houses a national shrine to the infant Jesus.

Last Thursday, the Rev. Price Oswalt said the theft at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church occurred sometime between the parish’s Christmas Mass and Dec. 29.

Oswalt, the church’s pastor, said he estimates $1,200 to $2,400 was stolen from several collection boxes at the church, but the parish is actually out about $8,000 due to the cost of cleaning up after the vandals and increased security.

Oswalt said the holiday theft is a “double whammy” for the church where about 80 families attend services.

He said the church’s 2009 Christmas Mass collection, typically a large collection because of increased holiday attendance, was decreased considerably because of the Christmas Eve blizzard that forced many churches across the state to cancel services or caused parishioners to stay home from those that were held.

He said the loss of this year’s Christmas week collection is hard to bear due to the previous year’s weather woes.

“It was certainly a Christmas present to them,” the Rev. Price Oswalt said of the thieves.

Prague Police Chief BJ Dudley said police viewed videotape retrieved from the church’s surveillance camera and subsequently arrested Robin Ray, 24, on one complaint of second-degree burglary and a complaint of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Dudley said the woman, who confessed to police that she participated in the church theft, was booked into the Lincoln County jail.

Dudley said two juveniles, both female, also were taken into custody as part of the department’s investigation and taken to Lincoln County Juvenile Services.

The minors have been released to their parents.

Oswalt said he viewed the tape and recognized at least one of the juveniles as someone he and other church members had befriended.

What they saw on the videotape of the incident was therefore all the more shocking.

Oswalt said the three spent about three hours inside the church, breaking flower vases and vandalizing the house of worship in other ways.

He said they pried open the metal collection boxes with scissors.

He said they repeatedly jumped up and down on a large wooden collection box until it broke.

The priest said several church staffers typically collect money from the boxes several times a week, but they were off because of the holiday.

He said that’s why the church is unsure how much money was inside the boxes because no one ever got to retrieve it.

He said it likely was one of the parish’s largest collections of the year.

He said the church is always open as a welcoming house of worship, and the National Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague drew about 60,000 people last year.

Oswalt said, unfortunately, the church has to spend money that is needed for other things on the purchase of four sturdy “vault-like” brass collection boxes.

He said many doors and drawers that haven’t been locked before will now be secured.

“We are contemplating all sorts of options to secure God’s house,” Oswalt said.

“I don’t want to lock the church, this being a national shrine. It should not be locked.”

He said the church preaches charity and mercy but people should be held accountable for their actions.

SIC: NOK/EU