Thief steals Xaverian shrine donations

A thief with a waiting getaway car mugged an elderly Catholic priest in Holliston Sunday in order to steal a box containing $500 from candle sales at the Fatima Shrine Mission Center run by the Xaverians in Holliston. In todays' Globe, David Abel reports:

"They have tried repeatedly to pry open the homemade lock, used a drill to bore holes into the donation box, and once burned down the shed housing the collection area for candle sales. On Sunday, the thieves tried a different approach to steal money from Our Lady of Fatima Shrine in Holliston. A man waited for the Rev. Gerard Furlan, 77, to open the donation box, which had about $500 inside from candle sales, and transfer the cash to a carton he uses to carry the bundle of bills into the rectory. Shortly before 6 p.m., the unidentified man grabbed the carton from Furlan's hands and sprinted through woods to a waiting van. 'I've caught them before, but I couldn't this time; I'm too old now to run after him,' Furlan said in a phone interview yesterday."

(Photo of the Rev. Gerard Furlan by David Kamerman of the Globe staff.)