TURA: In another case of burglary from a Church, miscreants on Monday night broke into the Sacred Heart Church, one of the oldest Catholic Churches in Garo Hills, and made off with a considerable amount of money and also damaged sacred items of worship kept inside the Church.
According to the Sacred Heart Parish Priest, Fr. Theodore T Sangma, the miscreants first entered the store room of the Church and got hold of construction tools including a pick axe and a crowbar which they used to break open the main entrance of the Church.
The thieves then broke open the donation box to get at the cash and offerings kept inside.
The thieves also brought out the tabernacle containing sacred items of Catholic worship which they broke open desecrating the items inside.
A steel almirah containing amplifiers and microphones was also badly damaged when the thieves broke it open. However, nothing inside was taken. The total value of the damage to Church property has been estimated to be around Rs.1.5 lakh.
Meanwhile, the Sacred Heart Church Committee, the Parish priest and others concerned have condemned the incident in the strongest possible terms.
“Desecrating the Holy Church and the Holy Articles of Faith has hurt the sentiments of the faithful of this Parish Church community. It is wrong to steal; however desecrating sacred items is a senseless act which is unpardonable,” said Fr. Sangma. It may be reminded that earlier the Tura Baptist Church was also burglarized in the same way in which miscreants also damaged several items inside the Church. In that incident the culprits had made off with cash amounting to several thousand rupees which was kept inside the Church.
The Hawakhana Baptist Church and the Goanang Baptist Church have also fallen prey to thieves and were broken into not too long ago and just weeks apart from each other.