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Thieves break into two Lowell churches

E-mail|Link|Comments () August 25, 2009 05:23 PM

By Jack Nicas, Globe Correspondent

At least two burglars broke into a Catholic priest’s rectory bedroom early this morning, coming face to face with the startled clergyman before fleeing, in the second church robbery in Lowell this week, police said.

“To think somebody is going to break into a church and steal things is a sad, sad thing,” said Rev. Nicholas Sannella, the pastor at Immaculate Conception on Fayette Street, the church robbed this morning.

At about 4:15 a.m., Rev. Raju Muringayil awoke to slamming on his bedroom door. Moments later, the lock broke out of the wood and the door swung open, a church secretary said.

“They came face to face and then they ran,” said the secretary, who identified herself as Mrs. Liston. “He believes there were more than four [burglars].” Police said there were at least two.

The thieves had broken into the church cellar and then ransacked the attached rectory, escaping with four desktop computers and an undetermined amount of cash.

On Sunday morning at Saint Anthony Church on Central Street, Rev. Charles Hughes found four locked collection boxes pried open and empty. Police would not disclose the amount stolen.

Both churches are Roman Catholic, and police suspect the robberies are connected.

“We are attempting to notify the Roman Catholic churches in the city,” said Captain Randall Humphrey, a Lowell police spokesman. Including the two parishes already hit, there are eight Roman Catholic churches in Lowell.

Rev. Sannella said the Immaculate Conception congregation had been raising money to restore the approximately 140-year-old granite church, but fortunately the thieves stole less than $100.

“We don’t keep cash here,” he said. “Just quarters and single dollars to pay postage.”

But that doesn’t mean the act was harmless, he said.

“It hurts, not financially, but it hurts in a different way,” he said. “The most valuable thing we have here is our faith… it’s difficult to put into words, but how could someone do that?"