ATTACKS on places of worship have continued after a Kempston church was burgled three times in just two weeks.
The Catholic Church of Our Lady, in Bedford Road was subjected to around £500 worth of damage in the incidents, which mirror those which took place last week at two mosques in Queens Park on the same day.
This week Canon Seamus Keenan, who runs Our Lady and other Catholic churches in the area, claimed that the incident had left parishioners surprised and upset.
He also called on people to have more respect for churches, mosques and other places of worship.
Canon Keenan said: “I’ve been here for 10 years and this is the first time this has happened, the parishioners are very surprised and upset because this is a place of worship. If I could speak to this person I would say that they should respect a sacred building, these are places of worship and command respect as such but if they are a drug addict it doesn’t really matter to them.”
After having to pay out for damage to three doors within the church, and for the loss of a printer Canon Seamus is now considering having CCTV installed on the premises to prevent similar incidents.
He said: “These people must think there might be ready cash, or valuable and precious metals here. We have a safe, but we keep it locked and the key is never on site, and we don’t have any valuable chalices or church wear here. This incident happened at night time and we still intend to keep the church open during the day.”