Stolen Gold Tabernacle Search Continues: Cash Reward Upped By $50,000

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Community leaders still praying for the return of a solid gold tabernacle stolen from a Park Slope church a couple months ago are now offering tens of thousands of dollars for information about the burglary.

The company insuring Diocesan properties announced a $50,000 reward Tuesday for information leading to the return of a bejeweled, multi-million-dollar tabernacle, which was stolen from the St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church in Park Slope at the end of May.

The cash offer is on top of the $3,500 reward offered by the NYPD last month.

"We continue to pray for the one-of-a-kind Tabernacle, made possible by the original parishioners of St. Augustine, to be returned and then restored, in all its glory, to the heart of this church," said Bishop Robert Brennan, the head of the Brooklyn Diocese, in a statement this week.

Months after the robbery, little is known about the thieves who cut open the tabernacle's metal-clad altar and made off with the holy item, decapitating statues in the process, since the sanctuary's security cameras reportedly weren't on due to construction.

The robbery reportedly devastated the community, but Brennan, who offered words of healing in the wake of the terrible event, said parishioners remain faithful.

"The theft of this historical item has not robbed the faith of the people of this parish," he said Tuesday.

The holy object was made in the late 1800s about the same time the church was built, the diocese said.

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