Thieves in the Shrine

In the months after Pearl Harbor, the parishioners of Brooklyn's St. Rosalia's Roman Catholic Church watched sons and brothers going off to war—and promised each other that, when victory came, they would build a shrine to Mary, Queen of Peace. Under their pastor, Monsignor Angelo R. Cioffi, they dug into pockets to raise the money. By last August, after nine years of planning and giving, St. Rosalia's parishioners had their triumph: dedication of their $2,000,000 Regina Pacis Votive Shrine, a Handsome stone building decorated with mural paintings by Italian artists and fitted out with such modern devices as air conditioning and electric votive candles (candle smoke is bad for murals).

The shrine's proudest ornaments were two jeweled, gold crowns, insured at $100,000, and made from the contributions, in jewels and money, of some 12,000 people. The fame of the crowns spread. Last winter Msgr. Cioffi took them to Rome, had them blessed by the Pope. Lately, they have been attached to a large painting of the Virgin above the altar. Except during important church ceremonies, the painting and crowns were locked behind a strong bronze grillwork.

One morning last week, when a priest came to unlock the grillwork for an 11 a.m. nuptial Mass, the crowns were gone. In the night, thieves had sawed out a section of the grille, reached in for the famous crowns. All that remained were a few diamonds and a broken piece of mounting, wrenched loose but left forgotten on the floor of Mary's shrine.