A tabernacle stolen from a remote county Galway church will probably
be melted down for its gold, according to a local councillor.
Mr Peter Roche said that the thieves who took the tabernacle from
Brooklodge Church near Tuam hardly want it for a private house and most
likely will try to convert it into scrap metal.
Parishioners are
recovering from the shock that the intruders stole the tabernacle, a
cross and the Eucharistic host.
PP Fr Joe O’Brien said that the theft of the Holy Eucharist was “the
really shocking thing.”
He appealed at mass to parishioners, especially
local landowners, to keep an eye out “in the hope that it might turn up
somewhere.”
Fr O’Brien said that Gardaí investigating the incident had told him
they had no leads as yet in the case other than the fact that similar
crimes had occurred in the southeast in recent weeks.
Cllr Roche also said it was possible that the stolen tabernacle could
have been stolen in the hope that it contained something of monetary
value and then discarded by the thieves after it had been opened.
“It
is a most barbaric thing to break into the House of God and steal,” said
Mr Roche.
“It is a very sinister act and it tells you that the people who did this have no faith and no religion.”
“One can only imagine that these people must have been on some
contract to steal these items,” he suggested.
“It can’t be that the
tabernacle was stolen to put in a private house, so it must have been
the intention to melt it down,” Cllr Roche said.