Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 18, 2020 / 02:18 pm (CNA).- Police are appealing to the public for help and a parish is requesting prayers after a tabernacle containing the Eucharist was stolen from a church in Boone, North Carolina on June 16.
“We are calling for prayers and the safe return of the Blessed Sacrament after the tabernacle was stolen from the church Tuesday night,” said a message posted on the website of Saint Elizabeth of the Hill Country Catholic Church.
The parish said the theft occurred “sometime after 9 p.m. Tuesday night,” and that the thief entered the church through a window.
Nothing apart from the tabernacle was stolen or damaged, said the parish.
“Please pray and offer reparation for the desecration of the church and the theft of the Blessed Sacrament,” the statement said.
Fr. Brendan Buckler, pastor of St. Elizabeth’s, appealed to the thief in a statement.
“We pray that your hearts may be moved to please return the tabernacle to us, but most especially the contents,” said Buckler in a statement provided to CNA by the Diocese of Charlotte.
The parish will hold a Holy Hour of Reparation on Thursday night.
Masses at the church on Wednesday and Thursday were canceled. The parish website states that prayers of reparation must be done before Mass can resume at the church.
The tabernacle is described as being approximately two feet tall and one foot wide, and is made of brass. The tabernacle contained a ciborium, which contains the Eucharist.
Police are requesting anyone who lives near the church to examine any surveillance footage that may have captured the thief.
No other churches in the area have experienced thefts or vandalism.
The Diocese of Charlotte declined to comment to CNA about a possible motive for the theft, and directed CNA to contact the Boone Police Department. The Boone Police Department has not yet responded to questions from CNA.
This is the second time in recent months that St. Elizabeth’s has made headlines.
In April, a parishioner reportedly made claims to the local health department that the pastor at St. Elizabeth’s had celebrated Mass on Easter Sunday with more than 10 people, in apparent violation of public health norms.
The parishioner, Karen James, told the National Catholic Reporter that she had counted 22 people enter the church building, which, she said, prompted her to call the local health department. James also voiced her objections to the priest’s celebration of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, which is celebrated in the parish in addition to the ordinary form of the Roman Rite, offered in both English and Spanish.
The parish said the Easter Mass was celebrated privately, and in conformity with both diocesan norms and health regulations.
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Washington D.C., Jan 25, 2019 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- New York’s newly-signed abortion law permits abortion for any reason up until the 24th week of a pregnancy, and then afterwards in cases to protect the “life and health” of the mother, … […]
A young woman holds a pro-life sign during a rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2023, marking the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. / Joseph Portolano/CNA
Washington D.C., Jun 25, 2023 / 06:40 am (CNA).
Marking the first anniversary of Roe being overturned, a group of pro-life leaders rallied hundreds to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial Saturday with the message that they were united around the fight for full, legal protection for the unborn from the moment of conception in all 50 states.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, told those gathered on a sunny, hot summer day that while she celebrated the 25 states that have passed strong pro-life laws, “we are in fact living in a divided states of America” where “a person’s location determines if they will survive the abortion gauntlet as we did.”
Hawkins said the country must become “an America where every human being is recognized as the unrepeatable person as they are with equal rights and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed, not because of what state their mother resides in or if they are perceived to be convenient or the circumstances of their conception.”
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, addresses the crowd at a pro-life rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial on June 24, 2023, marking the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Joseph Portolano/CNA
Hawkins told CNA that pro-life leaders are uniting around the belief “that every human being is a human person at conception” and that the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal justice clauses should be equally applied to persons in the womb.
“At a very minimum if you’re running for federal office, you should be able to acknowledge that abortion is a federal issue,” she said. “We want to see every presidential contender join with us to acknowledge what is so clearly written in the Fourteenth Amendment: that all human beings are human persons and deserve equal protection of our laws.”
Lila Rose, president of the pro-life group Live Action, called the Fourteenth Amendment “one of the most beautiful notes in our national song” and lamented that “when it comes to preborn children we have failed to extend these protections.”
Speaking at a rally in front of of the Lincoln Memorial on June 24, 2023, Lila Rose, president of the pro-life group Live Action, called it a “tragic contradiction” that “while our society celebrates advancements in prenatal care and technology, we simultaneously deny personhood and rights, the personhood and rights of these very same children.”. Joseph Portolano/CNA
Rose called it a “tragic contradiction” that “while our society celebrates advancements in prenatal care and technology, we simultaneously deny personhood and rights, the personhood and rights of these very same children. It is inconceivable that we would selectively deny these rights to one group of human beings solely based on their location: the womb.”
Republican presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence, who recently called on his fellow GOP presidential candidates to join him in backing a “minimum” nationwide 15-week abortion limit, made an appearance at the rally.
“As we celebrate this anniversary, let us here resolve that we will work and we will pray as never before to advance the cause of life in the laws of the land in every state in America. That we will support women in crisis pregnancies with resources and support for their care, for the unborn, and for the newborn as never before,” Pence said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, a 2024 GOP presidential candidate, addresses the crowd at a pro-life rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial on June 24, 2023, marking the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Joseph Portolano/CNA
“We stand for the babies and their unalienable right to life,” he said, pledging that he and his family “will never rest and never relent until we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law in every state in the land.”
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-life America, shared words of advice for the growing list of 2024 presidential candidates: “Get your act together. Figure out what you’re for and advance it. Don’t wait,” she urged.
“We have consensus in this country,” she added. “Start with that and be the president you’re called to be in justice and love for moms and justice and love for their babies.” Consistent Gallup polling shows that the majority of Americans would prefer to limit abortion to the first three months of pregnancy.
There were many young people in the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial, including Katriel Nyman, a 17-year-old from Washington state who is with Students for Life Tri-Cities. She told CNA that it was “really encouraging to see a bunch of people who believe in rights from conception.”
She said she’d “like to see more pro-lifers continue to persevere through this” post-Dobbs fight because “even if abortion isn’t legal in your state, you should be fighting for the rights of infants that are soon to be born in other states.”
Sameerah Munshi, a recent graduate of Brown University who is interning with the Religious Freedom Institute, holds a sign with a verse from the Quran about the sanctity of life that reads “We have dignified the children of Adam,” at a pro-life rally at the Lincoln Memorial on June 24, 2023. Lauretta Brown/CNA
Sameerah Munshi, a recent graduate of Brown University who is interning with the Religious Freedom Institute, held a sign with a verse from the Quran about the sanctity of life that read “We have dignified the children of Adam.”
She told CNA that she wanted to make her voice heard as a Muslim who believes, based on her faith, that abortion is wrong in most cases. She said many Muslims followers feel, as she does, that life begins “in the first couple weeks after conception.”
Munshi said that in the year since the Dobbs decision, “a lot of people that I know who don’t have strong opinions on abortion have been coming out either in favor or against” abortion. She sees it as valuable that there’s more discourse about the abortion issue and people are “coming to more conclusions for themselves as opposed to maybe rhetoric that they’ve seen in the news or rhetoric that they feel has been a part of their political platform.”
Jessica Newell, a Catholic student who is interning with Live Action and entering her third year at Coastal Carolina University, told CNA that “it’s so important for people who are indoctrinated by this culture to learn the truth about biology and the truth about God and that they’re made in the image of God.”
She emphasized that the pro-life movement still has so much to do and part of that work is “letting people know that they’re loved, that is a big step in changing the culture to a culture of life.”
Melissa Ohden, who survived a saline-infusion abortion at 31 weeks gestation, stands alongside her oldest daughter Olivia, 15, at a pro-life rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2023. Joseph Portolano/CNA
Melissa Ohden, who survived a saline-infusion abortion at 31 weeks gestation, stood at the rally alongside her oldest daughter Olivia, 15, and a sign which read “Babies survive abortions. I am one of them.”
“This was a very personal thing for Roe to be overturned,” she told CNA, “It is a day that we can celebrate, but it has not been a chance to pause, take our breath, it has been a time of continuing to hit the ground running.”
In her work heading the Abortion Survivors Network, Ohden said that since the Dobbs decision she’s heard from “more women than ever reaching out to us after their chemical abortions have failed.” She said it’s important to reach moms who are vulnerable to chemical abortions which make up the majority of abortions in the country.
Ohden said that since Dobbs the pro-life movement “has continued to be the side that is providing resources and support whether it’s in communities, at the state level, pushing for federal policy that supports mothers and children and families in a greater way.”
Her daughter Olivia said it was “amazing” to be at the rally with her mom and called the issue an emotional one because “people like my mom should be protected no matter who they are, where they are.”
Washington D.C., Jan 19, 2023 / 12:45 pm (CNA).
A potentially habitable “Earth-sized” planet has been discovered, NASA announced last week. Catholic scientists from the Vatican Observatory and Benedictine College hailed the discover… […]
5 Comments
“The parishioner, Karen James, told the National Catholic Reporter that she had counted 22 people enter the church building, which, she said, prompted her to call the local health department.”
Seriously, her name is “Karen?” *Surely* someone made that up!
From my era we think more “Gladys Kravitz”… a nosy busy-body type. What business is it of hers HOW many people entered the church? A typical Cathoic Church can easily hold 500 peopl, often many more 50 or 100 would have posed no problem. A control freak from the sound of it. I hope somebody tracks down who stole this tabernacle and Eucharist.. What a horrific act of hate. But then with no police able to do their jobs, what would we expect but the obvious decline of Western Civilization??
Historically, in several European countries where social, civil and political unrest took place along with a perceived threat to the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, Dioceses encouraged Parishes to form what was to become known as the Fraternity of the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. In decades long past, they were formed by men only, usually retired from the Armed Forces, or who had defence knowledge. These fraternities were charged with the task of maintaining a guard to the Blessed Sacrament and the Tabernacle itself at all times.
They often had a shift rota split into 4 shifts daily, or when that was not possible, 3 shifts daily, the last shift of the day was in charge of removing the Blessed Sacrament and take it home, leaving the Tabernacle door open, until next morning. The first morning shift would pick up the Blessed Sacrament from the relevant address and return it to the Tabernacle, beginning the first shift of the day.
Almost every Parish used to have one such Fraternity, in several European Countries.
It might be a good idea to re-establish that tradition once more.
“The parishioner, Karen James, told the National Catholic Reporter that she had counted 22 people enter the church building, which, she said, prompted her to call the local health department.”
Seriously, her name is “Karen?” *Surely* someone made that up!
Lol!! I thought the same thing , when I read her name!
Me three
From my era we think more “Gladys Kravitz”… a nosy busy-body type. What business is it of hers HOW many people entered the church? A typical Cathoic Church can easily hold 500 peopl, often many more 50 or 100 would have posed no problem. A control freak from the sound of it. I hope somebody tracks down who stole this tabernacle and Eucharist.. What a horrific act of hate. But then with no police able to do their jobs, what would we expect but the obvious decline of Western Civilization??
Historically, in several European countries where social, civil and political unrest took place along with a perceived threat to the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, Dioceses encouraged Parishes to form what was to become known as the Fraternity of the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. In decades long past, they were formed by men only, usually retired from the Armed Forces, or who had defence knowledge. These fraternities were charged with the task of maintaining a guard to the Blessed Sacrament and the Tabernacle itself at all times.
They often had a shift rota split into 4 shifts daily, or when that was not possible, 3 shifts daily, the last shift of the day was in charge of removing the Blessed Sacrament and take it home, leaving the Tabernacle door open, until next morning. The first morning shift would pick up the Blessed Sacrament from the relevant address and return it to the Tabernacle, beginning the first shift of the day.
Almost every Parish used to have one such Fraternity, in several European Countries.
It might be a good idea to re-establish that tradition once more.