A tabernacle containing the Blessed Sacrament was stolen during a late-night break-in at a Catholic school in the western India city of Nagpur, prompting the local archbishop to call for a day of prayer, penance, and reparation, according to Union of Catholic Asian (UCA) News.
The incident occurred around midnight Jan. 14 at St. Claret School, a Claretian Missionaries-run institution in Nagpur’s Butibori area. Archbishop Elias Gonsalves of Nagpur told UCA News that thieves entered through a back door, took about 30,000 rupees (roughly $330) from the principal’s office, and removed the gold-plated tabernacle from the school’s prayer hall.
“Despite lodging a police complaint, the blessed species have not yet been recovered, and their present condition and whereabouts remain unknown,” Archbishop Gonsalves told the outlet.
In a pastoral circular dated Jan. 17, the archbishop said that “no act of profanation has been established within the Prayer Hall itself” and added that “the unlawful removal of the Most Holy Eucharist constitutes a grave offense and gives rise to a danger of sacrilege,” according to UCA News.
Archbishop Gonsalves also decreed that Jan. 23 be observed across the archdiocese as a “Day of Penance and Reparation” and that “an hour of Eucharistic Adoration be observed in all Churches and religious houses of the Archdiocese of Nagpur, at a time suitable to the faithful or the religious community.”
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CatholicVote has previously reported on growing concern among Church leaders and Catholic organizations over attacks on Christian institutions in India and calls for stronger government protections for religious minorities. According to the North East Catholic Research Forum, in recent years, Christians in India have faced hundreds of alleged attacks, including physical assaults, sexual offenses, murder, threats, intimidation, destruction of churches, disruption of prayer services, and desecration of religious items.
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