Two mon­strances stolen from St Mary's RC Church in St James ear­li­er this month were re­turned this morn­ing, ac­com­pa­nied by a hand­writ­ten note ex­press­ing re­morse and seek­ing for­give­ness. The in­ci­dent was first re­port­ed by the Catholic News.

Parish­ioners ar­riv­ing for the 6.15 am Mass on Fri­day dis­cov­ered the sa­cred items in a black garbage bag at the church en­trance. The bag al­so con­tained $100 and a note which read: "Sor­ry fa­ther please pray for me ask God to for­give me and bless me."

The large and small mon­strances, val­ued at ap­prox­i­mate­ly $15,000, were stolen dur­ing a rob­bery on June 2, days be­fore the Cor­pus Christi ob­ser­vance. Parish priest Fr Em­manuel Pierre con­tact­ed the in­ves­ti­gat­ing of­fi­cer from the St James Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tion Di­vi­sion fol­low­ing their re­cov­ery.