L
LequteMan
Guest
The Catholic Church has appealed to thieves to return a container of the blood of the late Pope John Paul II that disappeared in what it called a vile and sacrilegious theft.
The gold reliquary was stolen at the weekend from a small stone church, San Pietro della Ienca, in the mountains east of Rome, where, in his younger days, the pope would slip away secretly from the pressures of the Vatican to hike and ski.
"I appeal to those who carried out this deplorable act’’, Archbishop Giuseppe Petrocchi of the city of L'Aquila, said in a letter to local Catholics on Monday night.
"Give it back’’, he said.
Dozens of police with sniffer dogs were still scouring the remote, snow-blanketed area for clues on Tuesday.
The gold reliquary was stolen at the weekend from a small stone church, San Pietro della Ienca, in the mountains east of Rome, where, in his younger days, the pope would slip away secretly from the pressures of the Vatican to hike and ski.
"I appeal to those who carried out this deplorable act’’, Archbishop Giuseppe Petrocchi of the city of L'Aquila, said in a letter to local Catholics on Monday night.
"Give it back’’, he said.
Dozens of police with sniffer dogs were still scouring the remote, snow-blanketed area for clues on Tuesday.
