Flock Returns to a Rebuilt O.C. Church

Diane Mellano arrived a little late for morning services Saturday at Fullerton’s St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church. With the ceremony set to begin in 15 minutes, she figured she would be standing in the back. What she didn’t expect was to be hovering outside listening to the proceedings through loudspeakers.

“I couldn’t get in,” Mellano said. “There was just no room.”

The cause of her predicament: 1,400 parishioners gathered for the dedication of a new church nearly five years after the old one was destroyed by arson. For a congregation that dwindled since the blaze, Saturday’s ceremony seemed like the end of a long journey.

“For the parish,” said Father David Gallegos, “it’s been a long time coming. We saw many parishioners, who had gone away for a time after the fire, come back.”

Bishop Tod David Brown, head of the Orange Diocese, presided over the service.

The steel-beam structure, with its wide windows and an altar set in the center of the building, parishioners said, was a welcome change from the white tents they prayed in for five years. Mellano, 66, vividly recalled services in the first tent put up in the parking lot. “We called it the circus tent,” she said with a smile.

When the wind blew, the sides would flap, she said, and when it rained, parishioners dodged the puddles. “You wore your ugly shoes when it rained,” Mellano said.

The tent arrangement didn’t work for everyone. Only a fraction of the church’s 2,400-family membership showed up most weekends for services. Those who stuck it out said they never felt more like a family than they did in those years.

“You sat in the same places, saw the same faces,” said Mellano who has been with the church since 1980. “It was a close situation. The other day I said to the gentleman that sits near me [that] I hope we get our same seats in the new church.”

The fire that destroyed St. Philip Benizi’s sanctuary began near the altar the afternoon of Aug. 17, 2000. The flames, which burned about an hour before firefighters could put them out, left a charred skeleton.

It was the second arson at the church complex in three months. The first involved elementary school-age youngsters who torched a church classroom. The arsonist behind the second fire remains a mystery.

Nonetheless, the church pushed on with its $6-million reconstruction. Despite delays and weather-related interruptions along the way, church officials opened the sanctuary before Easter as the bishop had ordered.

“Burst water pipes, leaky tents, parking. You name it, it went wrong,” said Richard Doubledee, 60, of Fullerton. “There’s a song with the words ‘I can’t keep from singing’ -- it was our mantra.”