NYPD: Gold tabernacle worth more than $2M stolen from Brooklyn church
The New York Police Department (NYPD) has commenced investigation into a recent gold theft in Brooklyn. This was after a gold tabernacle worth more than $2M was stolen from a Brooklyn church.
According to the NYPD, burglars broke into St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church in Park Slope sometime between 6:30 p.m. Thursday and 4 p.m. Saturday and forcefully cut open an altar.
Once the thieves were inside, they stole the pure 18-karat gold bejeweled tabernacle.
The tabernacle was reported to be housing the Holy Eucharist which is the sacramental representation of Jesus Christ.
According to a guidebook posted on the church’s website, the tabernacle was built in 1895 and restored in 1952 and 2000.
Described as a “masterpiece and one of the most expensive tabernacles in the country, guarded by its own security system,” the tabernacle uses an “electronically operated burglar-proof safe” and one-inch thick steel plates that “completely enclose it.”
Taken from the tabernacle and thrown on the altar was the Holy Eucharist, bread consecrated as the body of Christ.
At the time, the church was closed for construction.
The church’s pastor said camera recordings from the church’s security system were also stolen..
The Diocese of Brooklyn called it “a brazen crime of disrespect and hate” and that it was irreplaceable due to its historical and artistic value.
“This is devastating, as the Tabernacle is the central focus of our church outside of worship, holding the Body of Christ, the Eucharist, which is delivered to the sick and homebound,” Rev. Frank Tumino, the pastor of St. Augustine said in a statement issued by the diocese.
“To know that a burglar entered the most sacred space of our beautiful Church and took great pains to cut into a security system is a heinous act of disrespect,” Tumino said.
