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The qui­et still­ness of St Bene­dict’s RC Church in La Ro­maine was shat­tered ear­ly Mon­day when a gang of bur­glars broke in­to the pres­bytery, ty­ing up and rob­bing Priest Fr Derek An­ton. By yes­ter­day, work­men were al­ready chang­ing the locks, but the shak­en mood across the com­pound lin­gered heav­i­ly in the air.

Priest in Res­i­dence, Fr Jayson Grell, re­flect­ed on how far so­ci­ety had drift­ed from the val­ues that once held fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties to­geth­er.

“Long ago, when you heard in­ci­dents like this, you would nev­er think of go­ing in­to a pres­bytery or in­to a church to steal or to van­dalise. That would be con­sid­ered in­sane; you were crazy. It says to me that when you hear of these in­ci­dents, there is a break­down in fam­i­ly val­ues,” Grell said.