The break-in at Our Lady of Pompeii on Tuesday night is

the seventh attack on Griffith’s churches in the past few weeks, and police are furious.

The crimewave has motivated police to bring in an expert fingerprint analyst from Deniliquin in an effort to find the thugs robbing our churches.

Tuesday’s theft marks the first church burglary outside the central Griffith area, after a series of repeat attacks on the Anglican, Uniting and Baptist churches. Only recently retired, Fr James McGee was the parish priest at Our Lady of Pompeii for 15 years, and said he had never seen the church broken into.

“In principle I don’t lock the church because I feel it should be for the use of the people,” he said.

“We don’t have any money over there, apart from the silver coins in the candle box.”

There was a sensor alarm in the church, but it wasn’t turned on at the time of the robbery.

After Tuesday’s break-in, Fr McGee said the alarm would be switched on from now on.

“They are easy targets, because they know no one has to live in the church,” he said.

“But they are small-time, because there really isn’t much money in the church.”

It is somewhat mysterious why these burglaries are continuing, given many thieves have gone to significant trouble, though getting only pocket change from most of the churches, if anything at

all.

Forensic analysis has identified fingerprints from many of the burglaries, and police are now looking for a match.

Inspector Gordon Dunlop said police were hoping to soon catch the criminals responsible for such sickening crimes.

“Basically there are specific charges in regards to offences on places of worship,” he said.

“Not only the police, but the community view this sort of crime as contemptuous.”

Sacred Heart parish priest Father Anthony Dunne said he was incredibly disappointed the thieves were continually targeting churches.

“They are obviously desperate for money, and they are prepared to rob God’s House to get what they want,” he said.

“If they need money, they can come and ask. There are plenty of charities in town.”

Fr Dunne said it was terrible the burglars risked being put in prison for some spare change.

“They are committing a crime, and they are lucky if they got $10 in change,” he said.

“We don’t keep money on the premises, but they seem to have this perception that churches have money.”

Residents are advised to contact police if they see suspicious activity around churches.