Cash for Poor Is Stolen From Church In ‘Antithesis of the Christmas Spirit’

Police are searching for two thieves who they say spent Christmas morning brazenly stealing tens of thousands of dollars — some of it earmarked for needy children — from a Queens church.Parishioners were halfway through a morning Mass yesterday at St. Mel’s Roman Catholic Church on 154th Street in Flushing when, police said, the burglars breached the church sacristy, a back room in which religious objects are stored, and where this church’s safe is housed.According to church leaders, two young men guarding the safe were distracted around 9:30 a.m., when the suspects caused a noisy disruption in the basement. While the church employees went to investigate, the thieves allegedly removed the safe and a gray plastic collection box that held checks and cash.No one was injured.Yesterday, church leaders said the thieves were observed mid-heist. The criminals, they said, pretended to be technicians hired to repair the church’s elevator. However, a church usher who was suspicious followed them outside and wrote down the license plate number of their white sport utility vehicle. As of last night, police had made no arrests in the heist.The incident shocked parishioners and staff associated with the church, which has existed since 1941. “This crime is like the antithesis of the Christmas spirit,” a nun who lives in a convent adjacent to the church, Sister Anne-Marie Kirmse, said. “To steal from the poor has to be the lowest form of crime.”Police were unable to provide statistics for this type of crime, although church leaders indicated donations — and perhaps, temptation — reach a high point during this time of year. In 2003, two priests at St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic Church in Crown Heights were held up as a man made off with more than $12,000 earmarked for meal programs and holiday celebrations for children.Appearing weary at the church rectory yesterday, the pastor of St. Mel’s, the Rev. Christopher Tuczany, said he was thankful no one was injured, but called the theft a “brute” act. Collections typically pay for various church expenses, including staff salaries, electric bills, and insurance, he said. Donations are regularly deposited in the church’s bank account, and money collected during at least four church services on Christmas Eve would have been deposited today. A portion of this year’s collection was earmarked for a holiday fund for needy children organized by the Catholic Charities and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn.“This is horrible for it to happen during Christmas,” Rev. Turczany said. “Our financial income is based on these collections, but also Catholic Charities and needy children are suffering, too.”After an afternoon mass yesterday, parishioners retreated into cars and into neat, single-family homes around the church, which was decorated with wreaths and red velvet bows. As church bells rang a Christmas tune, the neighborhood received a stream of holiday guests carrying gifts.Longtime neighbors of the church were dismayed to learn of the burglary, and pledged to reissue their gifts. “It’s something unexpected. You wonder how somebody could have the moral insensitivity to do it on Christmas day,” a church member and parish neighbor, John Pagano, said. Mr. Pagano, who attended the school affiliated with St. Mel’s and sends his two young children there, said he hoped the incident would prove to be an anomaly.His wife agreed.”I’m very, very sad,” Susan Pagano said.”I think it’s terrible, especially on Christmas day.”

Cash for Poor Is Stolen From Church In ‘Antithesis of the Christmas Spirit’

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