CHURCHES across southern Sydney have had to beef up their security after becoming the targets of vandals and thieves.
More than a dozen parishes across Sydney now use a security firm to collect money from church-goers at Sunday masses, a spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney said.
Where churches were once 24-hour places of sanctuary, priests have now been advised to lock the doors of their churches at dusk.
Father Peter Lynch, the parish priest at St Thomas More's Catholic Church, in Bay Street, Brighton-Le-Sands, is considering security patrols at his church after a thief broke down the door to the parish office on April 15 and stole keys to take money from donation boxes for the poor.
Father Lynch said the threat of robbery and vandalism at his church was a sad sign of the times.
He said his parishioners considered crimes on churches to be "sacrilegious".
"We have about 600 people who come to mass here and they all feel very upset that someone would violate a religious building like this," he said.
"Any theft is horrible, but when it is from a church, a sacred place, it is very upsetting to the community."
Father Lynch said he was forced to change all the locks.
"It's a pity because it's going to cost us money money which could be used for better purposes," he said.
"At the end of the day, the person probably got no more than a few dollars."
Father Lynch said he has had a lot of contact with police since arriving as parish priest two years ago - windows to the church have been smashed and the building vandalised with graffiti.
Earlier this year, in three separate attacks, thieves stole copper pipes from the exterior of the church to sell for scrap.
St Francis Xavier Church at Arncliffe was also targetted.
The archdiocese spokesman said several churches and presbyteries across Sydney had fallen victim to robberies.
"The Archdiocese of Sydney has encouraged our priests to be very sensitive about security," the spokesman said.
"Churches are vulnerable places, but we want them to be accessible to people who wish to enter to pray or reflect.
"It is up to the parish priest locally to decide on the opening hours of each church."
A spokesman for the Anglican Archdiocese of Sydney said no Anglican churches in southern Sydney had been robbed or desecrated in the past month.