Fire tears through Queens church before Little Christmas: “I’m in shock”—UPDATED

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:13 pm by Deacon Greg Kandra

Fire tears through Queens church before Little Christmas: “I’m in shock”—UPDATED 2015-03-13T16:13:19-04:00 Deacon Greg Kandra

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Shrine at Our Lady of Sorrows (from parish website)

From the In My Backyard Desk, via The New York Post:

Flames tore through a Catholic church in Queens early Sunday, stunning parishioners who showed up for Mass only to find their house of worship on fire.

Firefighters got the call at 5:45 a.m. and rushed to Our Lady of Sorrows at 104-11 37th Ave. in Corona, officials said.

It took 106 of New York’s Bravest to bring the 2-alarm blaze under control by 7:39 a.m. The church tower clock survived the fire, but was frozen at 5:50 a.m.

“I’m in shock. I’m in shock,” said a tearful Rev. Thomas Healy, looking out at his saddened congregation.

“Look at these people. They’re wonderful people. This is their home. We’re an immigrant parish. They have nothing, but they have the church, they have Jesus, they have the mother of Jesus our lady, and this is their home. This is my home. I’m here 24 years.”

Read more. And remember them, please, in your prayers.

UPDATE: I received the following email from a reader in Ireland:

I couldn’t believe the story you carried about the blaze in that Church.. Unbelievably the Pastors Name Thomas Healy is the same as the Pastor of St. Mel’s Cathedral, Longford which was completely devastated by fire on Christmas Day 2009 and only reopened there at Christmas 2014. Both men are the same number of years in their respective parishes.

So for special reasons we send our love and prayers to the people of Our Lady of Sorrows.

You can read about the Longford story at www.longfordparish.com

Also there is a programme on RTE Player at www.rte.ie called “The Longford Phoenix” about the whole story. It’s quite something.

The parish website has some lovely images of the church before the blaze.

Meantime, the video below from a local TV station offers some of the poignant reaction from the community:

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