Los Angeles, Calif., Apr 10, 2022 / 18:46 pm
Thieves tried to desecrate a tabernacle and got away with an estimated $150,000 in technology used to livestream services from St. Monica Church in Santa Monica.
Surveillance video showed three people inside the church with flashlights removing the church’s audiovisual equipment at about 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 24. They also removed four candle boxes with donations, and tried unsuccessfully to pry open the church’s tabernacle with consecrated hosts inside.
The tabernacle is “the most sacred spot in any Catholic worship space — more so than the altar, more so than any other places,” Merrick Siebenaler, St. Monica’s director of development and communications, told the Santa Monica Daily Press. “Imagine someone breaking into the tomb of Jesus — that’s what that feeling is.”