A Valletta parish priest that admitted to being behind a spate of sacred art robberies exceeding €100,000 has spoken out for the first time since his arrest.

“I have orders from my superiors and from the police and my lawyers to stay quiet, wait and pray,” father Deo Debono told the Times of Malta.

He is awaiting the conclusions of a police investigation into whether he acted alone in the robberies Augustinian Convent in Valletta, police sources are reported as saying.

He is believed to be behind the theft of items such as incense burners, as well as paintings and silverware, but not to have acted alone.

Paintings that were stolen were reportedly replaced with fakes, and the crimes were only noticed after the artwork had long been stolen. It is believed the robberies occurred over seven months.

Debono is believed to have sold the sacred art for well below its actual value, and some Catholics within the parish are wondering if the funds have been used to buy more and more elaborate festa materials as the years have gone by.

“We had new banners every year and we would decorate more and more streets. We have a new titular statue. The feast is growing, but this comes at a great expense. I never questioned where the money was coming from. We organized several fund-raising activities but I am not sure how much these covered the extra expenses,” a parishioner also told the Times.

Since Debono was caught out, there’s been major fallout.

Debono was removed from the position of parish priest by Archbishop Charles Scicluna, and external celebrations of the feast of St Augustine – of which Debono was a major part of – have been cancelled.

Debono’s sister has also taken to social media to denounce the way her brother was being treated by the Archbishop, saying:

“I know he was following procedure but he should have remembered that the parish priest is a human being and has a family too. He could have informed him in advance so as to ensure we aren’t hit with double the shock in such a short span of time,” she said.

What do you think of a Maltese priest robbing his own church?

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