Fire Burns Heart of Church

The parishioners of Fullerton’s St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church don’t know whether it was a hate crime that gutted their sanctuary Thursday.

The fire is the second at the church in four months.

But to the many people whose history is inextricably tied to the church, it hardly matters--it hurts all the same.

“I went to grade school here. I had my sacraments here. I was married here,” said Diane McCard, weeping outside the fire-raked church as her husband and 4-year-old daughter stood near.

Virginia “Lou” Barry, 77, saw St. Philip Benizi Church in its infancy in the 1950s.

Like many of the older parishioners, she used to share her prayers at a local roller rink in preparation for the day when the church would fling its doors open. In 1958, the church did just that, and decades later, Barry was still there, singing in the choir.

“They used to call us the Original Holy Rollers. We wanted to support the church because it was going to be our church,” Barry said.

Now parishioners wonder where they will attend Mass.

In May, arsonists set fire to the church school, causing $13,000 in damage. The latest fire was far more catastrophic, however. Damage to the church was put at $1.3 million, according to Sylvia Palmer, public information officer for Fullerton. Gone is the altar, most of the pews and the newly purchased $15,000 piano.

Seven weddings that had been scheduled this weekend at the church, with receptions at the parish hall, will be held at various other churches in the area. Baptisms and funerals will also be affected.

The church, which has a congregation that includes 2,029 families, had been planning a jubilee this weekend to honor its patron saint. Instead, celebrations will be scaled down. Sunday’s five Masses--four in English and one in Spanish--probably will be held at the nearby Servite High School auditorium and United Methodist Church in Fullerton, Pastor Ignatius Kissel said.

On Friday, about two dozen federal law enforcement officials, and an arson dog named “Sully,” descended upon St. Philip Benizi Church. But officials are reluctant to call it a crime scene.

What they know is that there was an explosion, and that the fire spread with a ferocity and speed normally not associated with naturally occurring fires.

“Obviously, an explosion is going to raise an eyebrow of concern,” said Mike Matassa, supervising agent for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

The FBI has been notified, Matassa said, and will step in if it’s determined to be a crime scene. Ever since a series of arsons at parishes blazed across the southeastern United States three years ago, federal authorities have made church fires a priority, Matassa said.

Thursday’s fire utterly destroyed the inside of the church, partially caved the ceiling and blew out the windows.

“The roof is hanging by a thread,” Kissel said. “It’s devastating. It’s very disappointing. This place is holy. This is holy ground.”

There have been calls of support from area Catholic and Protestant churches, parishioners and even a high-ranking Vatican official in Rome.

Arson fires in Orange County churches are rare, Matassa said. Aside from the May arson at the Catholic church, the last one happened in 1995, when a man who called himself a missionary of Lucifer set a fire that destroyed a Sunday school building in Dana Point’s South Shore American Baptist Church, the official said.

Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the county’s Human Relations Commission, said he didn’t know whether the suspected arson was a hate crime but called it troubling nonetheless.

“As a resident of Fullerton, I’m particularly alarmed. This is a very community-oriented church, which reaches out to help the community around it,” Kennedy said. Catholic parishes are not frequent targets of vandalism or hate crimes in the county, Kennedy said. Synagogues and Islamic mosques are far more frequent targets, he said, as are immigrant churches.

Longtime parishioner Louise “Dottie” Rush said the destruction at the church was not only upsetting but frightening, leaving people feeling vulnerable.

“What kind of sicko would do such a thing?” asked Rush, who is in her 60s. “You see what people have done to synagogues and it worries you.”

St. Philip Benizi Church has a familial atmosphere that drew people closer, Rush said.

“We love worshiping together. There’s people that you love there. It hurts your heart that God’s house has been treated so,” Rush said.

Eulalio and Leandra Espinosa of Buena Park, both in their 70s, were driving through the neighborhood Thursday when they spotted the smoke pouring out of the church. They had been going to church at St. Philip Benizi since 1962, and their three adult children went to school there.

“When I saw the fire I said, ‘Oh my God, our church,’ ” Leandra Espinosa said. “My husband started crying. . . . It’s almost like home.”