How secure is the tabernacle?

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EIF5A

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With all the craziness going around, and especially in Europe where misled, often times fanatical, people of certain religious persuasion are pouring in, what security measures are there in parishes?

There are accounts (not reported by mainstream media of course) of vandalism of breaking religious statues in Europe. It’s not impossible to imagine escalations to even greater vandalism and sacrilege…
 
Tabernacles are generally locked.

In one parish that I belonged to, the tabernacle also had an alarm. (If they forgot to turn it off before Mass, it became quite obvious at the distribution of Communion that they had forgotten…)
 
In my parish the tabernacle is locked, and the key is kept in the locked sacristy. However, there are people who need to access both and sometimes the key has been left in the tabernacle accidentally. Also, the lock looks like it could be rather easily picked by someone who knows how to. So no, it’s not really all that secure if people aren’t vigilant.
 
Our tabernacles are locked, in locked churches. The keys are in locked sacristies in locked closets. One or two keys will give access to one particular church, closet, and tabernacle but they can only be accessed at certain times and only by EMHCs who have the key-code to get the second key (so that they can bring Communion to shut-ins).
 
The tabernacle is locked and the key is kept in the safe. Would this stop someone really determined to break in, who could pick a lock or who could physically break into it? No. But people do need to get into it, for instance to take Communion to the sick, or to check how many consecrated hosts are in there. And we have had no incidents of any kind in our church so I don’t think its an issue.
 
EIF5A said:
With all the craziness going around, and especially in Europe where misled, often times fanatical, people of certain religious persuasion are pouring in, what security measures are there in parishes?

There are accounts (not reported by mainstream media of course) of vandalism of breaking religious statues in Europe. It’s not impossible to imagine escalations to even greater vandalism and sacrilege…
Click to expand...
The tabernacle in my previous church had a locked “door,” the key was kept in a cupboard in a locked sacristy, and the church was locked. We did have a break-in once and a guy tried to steal the whole tabernacle, since it’s big and gold, but it was far too heavy for him. We had video footage of him trying to lift the thing and failing, then giving up and leaving the church.

Our tabernacle is over 3 feet tall and looks like this: drive.google.com/file/d/0B8qPwAQJtKZSU2tXTmlGSmx6TmM/view?usp=sharing
http://dumpt.com/img/files/ht9vvtclowdahenrf53t.png
 
The Tabernacle is always locked with the key in the locked Sacristy. The Tabernacle is also secured to a mable stand.
 
Locked. This isn’t a new practice. They were locked when I was an altar boy in the mid-1970s.

Our church back then had a chapel, and it had the coolest tabernacle I’ve ever seen. I used to love to watch the priests open it up during Mass. With the first turn of the key, elaborately decorated gold curved doors would slide around to the back. The second turn of the key would cause thin, flat, completely plain gold doors to swing open. The smooth operation of the mechanism was mesmerizing to my 10-year-old self. I so much wanted to turn the key myself and study the motion.

Truthfully, I’d probable mesmerized today.
 
Ah ok. I knew there was a lock – wasn’t sure if it was actually locked properly.

Before I was Catholic and knew what Eucharist was, I attended Mass a few times, and before Mass began, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed in a monstrance (looked only like an ornament at the time). There were very few people there, so someone with ill-intent could have easily carried out malice.

I wonder if parishes in Europe are taking extra precaution these days…
 
I attended Mass last month at Westminster Cathedral in London. The night before someone had broken in and stolen all the money from the offering boxes for candles. They had done some damage prying some of the boxes open. As the priest said, “We’re sitting ducks.”

It probably isn’t worth a thief’s time to break into a tabernacle to steal a gold chalice. Where would he sell it? However, I can certainly see where some fanatic would think it was a great idea to break into a tabernacle to desecrate the Eucharist. I’m sure there are already cases of this in the Middle East. A lock on the tabernacle door is no deterrent.
 
Along those lines…if a person wanted to steal a host to desecrate it, they simply put one in their pocket.
We have “caught” several people taking the host and not consuming it immediately. One guy put it in his pocket “for later”. No. No you can’t.
:mad:
 
Anchored to the floor, locked. The Cathedral has a security system , and I imagine, cameras.
 
My parish has a locked tabernacle that is secured to the reredos. The key is kept in a locked sacristy. We also have motion sensors for the entire sanctuary. We are a downtown parish, the Cathedral to be exact, and constantly have street people hanging around. We are welcoming of them but we are also prudent.
 
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