They can’t even mourn in peace.
A heavyhearted rehearsal for a Newtown Christmas pageant that was supposed to memorialize a tiny shooting-rampage victim was abruptly evacuated this afternoon — after a heartless sicko called in a death threat, authorities said.
Pageant organizers had decided to honor a first-grader killed in the Friday morning school massacre in Connecticut by still going on with the event, in which she was supposed to appear as an angel.
MORE ON THE CONNECTICUT MASSACRE
But that attempt at a memorial was cruelly disrupted after Connecticut state cops informed clergy at the rehearsal site — St. Rose of Lima Church in Newtown — that a caller threatened the facility around 12:30 p.m., and authorities ordered an immediate evacuation.
“Someone called and threatened the church,” Msgr. Robert Weiss told The Post. “State Police said we need to evacuate everyone.”
Church spokesman Brian Wallace told the Post that the police swept the church complex and gave an all clear.
“The police told us we could reopen.” Wallace said.
But Wallace said the church had canceled evening activities and is closed for the remainder of the day. “We’re locked down,” Wallace said. “In the interest of public safety and sanity, we’re going to give everyone a break. We’ve got at least 8 funerals and wakes this week,” starting Tuesday morning.
In addition to those gathered to practice for the pageant, more than 400 already shattered mourners were forced to evacuate a nearby chapel because of the depraved caller.
Grieving kids and their jumpy parents managed to stay calm during the five-minute evacuation but some children began crying and asking for comfort and reassurance from their shaken moms and dads
Of the person who called in the threat, “It was a cool voice,” Wallace said. “It was a deliberate voice, a male voice.”
The entire facility was later cordoned off as state cops — including armed SWAT teams — began a sweep of the area.
This morning, authorities warned that people posing as killer Adam Lanza were posting threatening messages on Facebook and Twitter.
Before the evacuation, Pastor Peter Cameron addressed his grief-soaked assembly at St. Rose, which included the husband of one of the adult victims.
“With us this morning at Mass is the husband of a teacher that was killed, and he has children,” Cameron told the weeping crowd. “We need to pray for them. There is a sadness, a darkness, show him the reasons to keep going to help him feel the friendship that is there, which is the friendship of God.”
“Someone said to me at 6 o’clock this morning, ‘I guess we need to cancel Christmas.’ No,” said the pastor. “We need Christmas now more than ever before.”
A collective gasp went up after Cameron informed the crowd that his church would be hosting a total of eight funerals for victims of the shooting this week.