Beauty from the ashes: how to lose its church strengthened a Catholic community

They were around 2:00 pm on August 29, 2022 when lightning fell on the Mary church, Queen of Angels, 150 years old, at Fort Scott, Kansas (United States). In the St. Mary’s Catholic School, which was next, the force of the ray dropped several students of their seats and shook the roof plates.

When Fr. Yancey Burgess, parish priest of the parish, evaluated the damage, discovered that the lightning had “completely burned” the elevator of the church, but “saw nothing more bad at school or in the church.” Despite the rarity of the day, life continued normally. A group of men held a meeting at 6:00 pm in the church, while others were at school in the last hours of the day.

However, at 8:00 pm, the fire that had started in the attic was finally revealed, since the smoke rose from the church roof. Hell quickly consumed the structure; The Church could not be saved (although the Blessed Sacrament could be taken to a safe place).

Throughout the night, hundreds of faithful remained standing, observing how their beloved spiritual home was wrapped by the flames, almost reduced to debris. All interior works of art were now in ashes or damaged without the possibility of repair. The roof had collapsed and the burned beams covered the ship, which was still hot when the morning arrived.

Even so, Fr. Burgess did not despair. I knew that the parish would be rebuilt, but that would have been more than two years.

“A Treasury”

When Robert Elliot learned about the fire, he immediately called Fr. Burgess and offered his talent. Before retirement last December, Elliot had his own Art Study For almost 30 years in Wichita.

Although he was not Mary’s parishioner, Queen of Angels, the fire affected it deeply. Fr. Burgess and Elliot hindered a friendship years before, when the latter’s wife, Theresa, became ill and died in 2016. The first was the hospital chaplain in the chapel of the painful mother, via Christi, Campus St. Francis; Later he would be the main celebrant at Theresa’s funeral mass.

“This church was a treasure, not only for the people of Mary, Queen of Angels, but a treasure of the (Wichita diocese) too,” Elliot told the National Catholic Register.

But the task would be monumental and demand a lot of time. The stations of the Via Crucis, which measure almost 1.50 meters high, were “absolutely destroyed”, only “lots of debris,” said the artist. Apart from the “trauma” inflicted by fire, several pieces were as old as the Church itself and, therefore, fragile and delicate to touch. In addition, the financing would be limited, since insurance only covered $ 59,000 to replace the elements; The project would finally cost $ 160,000.

With the help of the parishioners, Elliot picked up the broken and broken pieces that he could and then transported them back to his study, which was more than two hours from Fort Scott.

A LOVE WORK

To coincide with the original style of the statues of the nineteenth century, Elliot created molds of each station and studied “thousands of different images to see what the most desirable aspect and period of time was” that I had to emulate. Meanwhile, the surviving fragments should not only be cleaned, but also to be linked to eliminate three layers of paint dating from the church’s foundation, which seemed like an “archaeological excavation.” In addition, so that the new stations of the Crucis via were more resistant, embedded a metal framework within its structure to sustain and distribute the weight of the work evenly.

For more than two years, six days a week, Elliot dedicated his time and energy to the restoration project. He donated his own money to the cause and even refused to receive income for a year. However, he was not the only one. Always optimistic, the artist turned the “bad situation in the greatest opportunity” for young ascent talents, starting a learning program to teach them “the basic restoration skills.”

“We treat it as a ministry,” Elliot said. Among the Wichita State University, local Catholic secondary schools and volunteers, more than 30 people contributed to the effort, and “seemed that every time we needed that angels appear, they appeared out of nowhere.”

Among those volunteers was Jane Clark, former parishioner of Mary, Queen of Angels and now resident of Wichita. At the beginning of 2024, she and her husband met Elliot during a 40 -day event for life, praying outside the local planned parenthood center.

“He had a great body blackened by smoke in his car and joked saying that Jesus wanted to invite us to a cup of coffee,” Clark told the register. “When I learned that the crucifix came from our former parish and that the work in the project was slowing down due to lack of funds and workers, I offered my non -specialized help.”

For Clark, who sanded and prepared the figures, the work was “an intimate way of entering each of the stations” and “it was a surprisingly spiritual experience.”

The only requirement that Elliot had for the interns, apprentices and volunteers was that they should be Christians, although not necessarily Catholics, because, as he explained, “I do not want anyone who is not; I do not want his skepticism to be introduced ”and unfounded those feelings in art.

“It’s not about us or our egos, but about being at the service of all these people and God,” Elliot said.

However, due to spending, the project still needs to recover almost $ 20,000. Together with his own fundraising effort, the Mary parish, Queen of Angels has supported Elliot’s campaign on the home page of your website.

Recovering his church

In an insurance form, the impact of lightning was categorized as an “act of God”, however, the fire did not seem a providential act, since the roof of the church collapsed and the interior was damaged.

However, the community of Mary, Queen of Angels, at first sad and confused, reacted quickly. After the fire, Fr. Burgess received between 300 and 400 phone calls from people from Fort Scott and Kansas who wanted to help. The parishioners went to the Church “to start cleaning it,” said Father Burges to Register, adding: “We finally had to make them stopped because, although they had good intentions, the fire chief had not yet declared what caused what caused The fire, so he still had to do his inspection. ”

Although the cleaning efforts were commendable, the pastor was even more surprised by the increase in assistance to Mass and families entering the parish in the following days, months and years.

“Normally, for a daily mass, we would have about 20 people, but the next day (on August 30, 2022) we had 200 people,” said Father Burgess. “But it is interesting that, when lightning fell, we had about 290 families in the parish; Two years later, we have 380 families. ”

During the next two years, until the redeeding Mass of the parish was held in the St. Mary Catholic School Gymnasium on November 23, 2024, every Friday, volunteers and students installed 250 chairs and converted space into a Church as much as it was possible. Then, after the Mass of 10:00 am on Sunday, “everyone took them to have their gym to play and do physical education during the week,” said Father Burgess, added: “There were sacrifices made by young people and old. It was worth it. ”

Parish life also continued with renewed vigor, organizing fried fish meals during Lent, Spaghetti dinners, Chile which amounted to a total of 7.8 million dollars.

As for the reconstruction of the Church, which was completed by Simpson Construction and Alloy Architecture, it was developed as planned, with few interruptions caused by the weather or by waiting for equipment and materials to be brought from Wichita or Kansas City. Finally, the new Church was built to coincide with the style of the previous structure, although with modern comforts and accessibility for people with disabilities.

However, insurance only covered between 80% and 90% of the project; The rest had to be borrowed from the Diocese of Wichita. Through an active fundraising campaign, called “Church Reconstruction Fund”, the parish needs additional $ 600,000 to pay the new Church. Although it is an overwhelming goal, Fr. Burgess knows that money will come and trust that the Lord will provide.

“Many (parishioners) are farmers and ranchers,” he said. “They are not people with great resources, so the little contribution of all is needed so that this great contribution becomes a reality.”

However, the reaction to the construction result could not be exaggerated. When the doors of the new church opened, many cried, in particular when they saw the “wonderful works of art” of Elliot, the pastor said. Meanwhile, after years of waiting, the parish priest was excited when he heard the music of the reinstalled organ for the first time.

In the end, what began as a disaster has given rise to a more vibrant and hopeful parish community, according to Father Burgess. “We are still amazed by the gift that God gave us to have our church back with all the news,” he said. “We are very grateful.”

Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in the National Catholic Register.