I am persuaded God has a sense of humor. When I was once a Presbyterian, Calvinist seminarian, I tried, without result, to persuade my then-Reformed Baptist girlfriend that paedobaptism—the practice of baptizing infants and children—had […]
Denver Newsroom, Jul 28, 2020 / 02:30 pm (CNA).- A fire tore through the parish offices of a historic Catholic church in Monroe, North Carolina early Monday morning, and though the damage is extensive, the church’s pastor is thankful that the blaze did not touch the main sanctuary or the Blessed Sacrament.
Father Benjamin Roberts told CNA he arrived at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church on Monday morning, ready to celebrate daily Mass, to find the parish office building had burned to the ground.
Roberts was shaken, but he resolved to celebrate Mass outdoors in the outdoor grotto, as scheduled.
“I told people: I don’t have much information, and I’d appreciate it if you’d not ask me anything [yet] because I don’t have a lot of information, and my staff doesn’t have any more information than I do. But I need the consolation of the Eucharist,” he said.
In preaching the homily, Roberts said he sought to remind his parishioners that although the old church building was damaged, God is still present in the community of His people.
Roberts said investigators have told him that the cause of the July 28 fire is still “undetermined,” and though investigations strongly suspect that it was an accident, and not arson, they have not yet reached a conclusion, he said. No one was hurt.
“I was relieved to hear that there was no evidence of arson or anything else. We hadn’t had any threats, but there have been so many [arsons] throughout the country and throughout the world, so that was a grave concern for me,” Roberts told CNA, referring to attacks against Catholic churches and statues in recent weeks.
“But once I heard that, I was relieved on a certain level.”
The final picture shows the remains of these two chalices after today’s fire. As I said to my Bishop when he visited me today, “My priesthood is more than a chalice.” @CatholicNewsCLT @jdflynn pic.twitter.com/bO19btUAAA
— Fr Benjamin Roberts, DMin (@fr_benjamin) July 28, 2020
The early 90s-era building that holds the parish offices— normally used by Roberts, his secretary, and administrative assistant— were completely destroyed, and along with them many of the parish records.
Roberts is still assessing where the parish personnel will be able to work while the offices are repaired, but he said the campus has enough space to accommodate them temporarily elsewhere.
The priest said there was also some damage done to the original church, which was built in 1945 and is attached to the parish offices. The main stained glass window in the chapel above the altar was destroyed.
The original sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes was one of the oldest Catholic churches in the county.
Today— at least before the pandemic— that smaller sanctuary was used as a daily Mass chapel, with the main sanctuary located across the street. The original rectory, which dates to 1947 and is used for extra office space and storage, suffered minor damage.
Because of coronavirus restrictions, Roberts had already been celebrating all daily and Sunday Masses outdoors, in the parish’s grotto, which did not suffer any damage.
Providentially, Roberts said, the Blessed Sacrament was not in the chapel tabernacle at the time of the fire. The priest had moved it to the main church building, which also was untouched.
“There is some considerable damage, but hopefully all of it repairable,” he said, adding that an engineer is expected to examine the building on Wednesday.
He said the parish is working with the Diocese of Charlotte’s properties office and insurance company to assess the damage. The bishop and vicar general have visited the church to lend their support, he said.
Bishop Peter Jugis of Charlotte was actually pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes until his appointment to lead the diocese in 2003, Roberts said, so the offices that burned had once been his.
The fire knocked out phone and internet access at the church, Father Roberts said. Since the parish lacks a website, Roberts has been communicating with his flock via Facebook since the fire, attempting to address rumors about the fire’s cause and to reassure parishioners that the damage can be addressed.
“Lots of support, lots of promises of prayers from our parishioners, and from people all over,” he said.
“One of the first questions people were asking was: Is Father okay?” he said, adding that he does not actually live on the parish campus, so the early morning fire did not threaten his safety.
The main sanctuary had been renovated extensively in the past several years, Roberts said, so he is glad that there was no damage there.
Among the items destroyed in the fire were two ornate chalices, both with special significance for Roberts— one of them he had been given upon his ordination, and the other he had bought in Spain when he finished part of the Camino de Santiago.
Still, Roberts said when he found the ruined chalices, he felt an unusual sense of peace, as he realized that his priesthood was worth far more than these sacramental items.
“There’s been this unexplainable sense of peace today…recognizing the presence of the Lord and wanting to take the next step and the step after that. It’s a wonderfully supportive community here.”
The North Carolina fire, though likely not arson, comes after a spate of intentional fires against church properties across the country and the world.
The Catholic community at Queen of Peace Parish in Ocala, Florida is rebuilding after the church was set on fire earlier this month and a Florida man was charged with arson.
A man on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia attempted on Sunday to set fire to a crucifix outside a Catholic church, while parishioners worshiped inside the building.
A church volunteer has admitted to starting a fire at Nantes Cathedral in France on July 18, and has been charged with arson.
Another possible arson occurred in California, where a fire ravaged the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel church in Los Angeles in the predawn hours of Saturday, July 11. That fire is now being investigated for foul play.
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CNA Staff, Jul 28, 2020 / 09:30 am (CNA).- In 2019, two friends launched a movement to protect churches across France in response to a wave of desecrations.
The friends — identified by their first names, Gauthier and Guillaume — decided to act after reading about the hundreds of attacks taking place annually against French churches. The incidents ranged from graffiti to the desecration of tabernacles.
Their idea was simple: instead of merely lamenting the attacks, they would take practical action. They decided to hold peaceful nighttime vigils outside churches, together with other young people, to deter potential aggressors.
The organization they founded, Protège ton église (Protect Your Church), spread quickly across France. Soon there were sections in Paris, Nantes, Nice, and other cities dotted around the country.
Protège ton église did not respond to a request from CNA for comment. But in a May 2019 interview with the blog Le Salon Beige, Gauthier said: “The watchers are mostly between 18 and 30 and this promotes a fraternal and very enjoyable atmosphere within the groups. This youthful atmosphere also encourages openness because passers-by are intrigued and ask the watchers questions during the rounds.”
“We have both committed students and young working people, married or engaged. We insist on the need to have people with balanced, mature, and reasonable lives. The group is mainly made up of Catholics, but there are also people from other backgrounds who are eager to ‘feel useful,’ to defend a just and noble cause.”
Activities are organized mainly through Facebook. Protège ton église publishes photos of vigils on its page. The organization is careful not to identify participants, asking them to publish photos with their backs to the camera. Leaders only identify themselves in public by their first names. They take these precautions to avoid aggressive online attention or confrontations with would-be vandals.
“The point is, first and foremost, to demonstrate that anti-Christian acts do not leave us indifferent and that France is capable of protecting its heritage and its roots,” Gauthier said in the 2019 interview, which was translated into English by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe in Vienna.
“For Catholics, it goes even further, because a church is where the tabernacle is located — that is, the real presence of God who sacrificed himself for man’s salvation.”
Protège ton Eglise shares information about its activities with the Paris-based l’Observatoire de la christianophobie (Observatory of Christianophobia), which meticulously documents anti-Christian acts in France.
Guillaume de Thieulloy, the Observatory’s founder, told CNA: “We have no institutional link with Protège ton Eglise, but we gladly relay their actions.”
“As for the impact of their action, I would say that it is mainly symbolic (in the sense that they are too few in number to physically protect the 40,000 or so churches in France), but their action helps to awaken consciences and alert people to the threats to Christian places of worship — all the more so as they have a certain audience, especially on social networks.”
He continued: “It is quite striking that young people form a good part of the active Catholics in France (this is particularly evident in the pro-life demonstrations, but also in the support for persecuted Christians).”
“The generation of people who were 20 years old at the time of the [Second Vatican] Council tended more towards ‘burying one’s faith,’ as they used to say at the time. This is no longer the case: young priests are more willing to wear the cassock and young lay people assume their Catholic identity more easily.”
De Thieulloy noted that Protège ton église had not received much mainstream media coverage in France. He said the group was more likely to reach supporters through appearances on the web television platform TV Libertés or on the website of l’Observatoire de la christianophobie, rather than through interviews on a French public national television channel.
Protège ton église welcomes new members, but encourages those who are unable to attend vigils to join in through prayer.
“We ask Catholics to pray for us,” Gauthier said in the 2019 interview, “for our action, for our movement, for all our watchers, but also for all those who are the source of vandalism or desecration because, as Our Lord Jesus Christ said to his Divine Father: ‘They know not what they do.’”
“We must pray for their souls and their conversion. And we must pray more for France by asking St. Louis and St. Joan of Arc to intercede for it.”
The organization has a patron saint: Blessed Noël Pinot, who was arrested while celebrating a clandestine Mass in 1794, following the French Revolution. When he was guillotined, he was wearing the vestments he wore at the Mass. Eyewitnesses said that while waiting to ascend the steps, he recited the opening words from the Mass, “Introibo ad altare Dei” (I will go unto the altar of God).
A seminarian who has taken part in Protège ton église vigils composed a prayer in honor of the Blessed.
It reads: “God, our Father, You who have crowned Blessed Noël Pinot with the laurels of martyrdom, we pray to you: Give us the grace to respond every day and until our death to the call you have made to us to protect your Church. Through his intercession, inspire us with the right words and actions.”
“Enlighten and strengthen us, make us, like our patron saint, invincible in the defense of the Church and the propagation of the faith. Deign to grant your forgiveness to those who, ignorant of you, hate you and attack your Bride.”
“God, our Father, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, we ask you to hasten the day where the Church will proclaim the holiness of her life. ‘Lord who has given your life for me, may I gladly give you mine.’”
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