Theft in Clinic Chapel: Icon and Cross Stolen

The chapel at the Benjamin Franklin Clinic in Berlin has been desecrated by thieves who stole an icon, a cross, a holy water bowl, and a Bible. Pastor Annette Sachse of the Charité's pastoral care expressed deep distress over the violation of the sacred space.

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It is simply painful and hurtful that one would lay hands on the interior furnishings of a chapel.

Some of the stolen items hold particular significance. The icon, described as a found object, was discovered on the clinic grounds by gardeners approximately a year prior and was given a place of honor in the chapel. "It is a loss. We have already wondered whose hands it may have passed through and why it lay on our grounds," said pastoral counselor Kristina Ebbing.

The cross was donated to the chapel by a former psychiatric patient seeking a good home for it. "He was looking for a good place for it, and now it's gone. It's sad, of course, when something like this is simply stolen," Ebbing added. The stolen Bible was noted to have gilded edges and illustrations.

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It is a loss. We have already wondered whose hands it may have passed through and why it lay on our grounds.

Police reported that the theft occurred between July 17 and 18. The estimated value of an icon like the one stolen is between 600 and 800 euros. This incident follows a previous theft at the Charité in May, where a bronze sculpture titled "Mother with Child" by artist Dorothea Buck was stolen from a display case in a Berlin-Mitte clinic.

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He was looking for a good place for it, and now it's gone. It's sad, of course, when something like this is simply stolen.