Former Pope Benedict XVI’s pectoral cross has been reported stolen from a church in southern Germany where it was on display.
Unknown perpetrators broke up a glass case on the wall of St. Oswald’s Church in Traunstein during daytime hours Monday, according to CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language partner news agency.
According to police, cash was also stolen from the cash register of a church literature booth.
The late Pope Benedict XVI’s pectoral cross was stolen from the German Church.
The value of the cross to the Catholic Church is “unquantifiable,” according to the police. Authorities are encouraging anyone who witnessed anything odd near St. Oswald’s on Monday to come forward with any information. The investigation is being led by the Traunstein district attorney’s office.
According to Munich archdiocese spokesman Christoph Kappes, the lost cross is one of several of its sort. It was given to Traunstein after Benedict resigned and will be displayed at the spot where it was taken in 2020, according to German news agency dpa.
Benedict died on December 31, nearly a decade after resigning as the first pontiff in six centuries.
