Bavaria
Prison sentence after the theft of Pope’s pectoral cross
View into the church interior and the altar of the town church of St. Oswald. photo
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
He has the pectoral cross of the dead Pope Benedict XVI. stolen – but apparently he didn’t even know what he had stolen. Now the man should be behind bars.
The so-called pectoral from the Traunstein town church of St. Oswald could not be found again. The cross, which the Pope, who died in 2022, bequeathed to his home parish and which has an inestimable spiritual value for the faithful, is around 10 to 15 centimeters tall, made of gold-plated silver and set with various precious stones.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the thief has been convicted of various property crimes in Germany and other European countries since 1990 and has been behind bars several times. He has been in custody in Bavaria since October.
The public prosecutor’s office had accused the man of particularly serious theft and damage to property and demanded three years in prison. The defense, however, had pleaded for one year. As of Tuesday, however, neither side had filed an appeal. According to the verdict, the man pried open and damaged the plexiglass pane in front of the cross in the city church on June 19 last year. According to his own statements, he stole the cross because of its appearance. Apparently he didn’t realize that it was Benedict XVI’s pectoral cross. was.