Still Running Off at the Keyboard

LYNN - When Rev. James Gaudgreau learned that there was a theft at St. Joseph's Catholic Church on Tuesday night, he was quite alarmed. But when he found out what was taken, he was downright flabbergasted.

"It is gravely sacrilegious," said Gaudreau, after learning that the thieves made off with communion hosts. " Webelieve (the hosts) are the body and blood of Christ," Gaudreau said.

The hosts were locked inside the tabernacle located on the first floor of the church. Gaudreau believes the thief or thieves entered through a boiler room door, which might have been left unlocked by a repairman who serviced the boiler last week.

Gaudreau, piecing together a trail of broken wood, said that the thief then punched a hole through a wooden cross located on a door to a small room behind the alter. Although valuable gold chalices are kept in a cabinet in the room, only the keys to the tabernacle were removed.