HARDIN - Thieves entered St. Norbert Church sometimes during the night of Nov. 13, where they removed hosts from the tabernacle and placed them in a circle on top of the tabernacle. They smashed though an adjoining door to St. Norbert School, where they broke open multiple locked classroom doors, shattering some door windows. They took a laptop computer from a teacher's desk; and took some folding money and a bag with an undetermined amount of coins. The church and school are part of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in northern Calhoun County.

"Police think more than one person was involved in this," said Father Bill Kessler, pastor at St. Francis. "They had broken into the sacristy, riffled through the cabinets and found the key to the tabernacle. They left it on top the tabernacle, which was locked. Because they had the key and could get access to the tabernacle, it is my belief, the hosts were consecrated," said Father Kessler.

The burglary was discovered early Wednesday morning, when the first school personnel arrived. School was cancelled that day and the next in order for police to investigate the crime scene, and parish personnel to assess the extent of the loss and damages and make the necessary repairs.

At Sunday liturgies the weekend of Nov. 18, "I asked for folks to pray that justice would be done," said Father Kessler.

A nearby video store was also broken into that same night.