Lightning Strike Causes Major Fire Damage to Historic Illinois Catholic Church

Catholic News Agency ^ | 8/9/22 | Joe Bukuras

[marshmallow]

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 9, 2022 / 15:10 pm A lightning strike caused a roof fire Monday that severely damaged a historic Catholic church in Rockford, Illinois, and left three firefighters injured, authorities said.

The Rockford Fire Department determined that lightning set the roof on fire at Saint James Catholic Church, Mike Rotolo, the department's fire prevention coordinator, told CNA Tuesday. The damage to the church may exceed $3 million, he said.

The city's building department posted a yellow sign with the message “Condemned: Do Not Enter” outside the church Monday, Rotolo said. This means that the building is not safe to use in its current condition, he said.

The church is located outside the Chicago metropolitan area in the far northern part of the state. The church was first blessed in 1853, according to the parish’s website.

In a statement, the Diocese of Rockford said the fire broke out before 7 a.m. on Aug. 8. The diocese posted a video on its Facebook page showing firefighters responding to the blaze.

No one was inside the church during the time of the fire and the pastor safely removed the Holy Eucharist from the building, the diocese said.

Three firefighters responding to the scene suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the fire department said in a tweet.

[telescope115]

That was quite a shock. It wasn’t my church, but I’ve been there a few times.
A good friend and his wife were married there, our kids competed against St. James’ students in volleyball and basketball. They were tough to beat.
I hope they rebuild.

[aimhigh]

I’ve read about a half dozen churches burned by lightening in the last two weeks.

[Dr. Sivana]

I was afraid it was St. Mary Oratory, where the Institute of Christ the King had one of their first U.S. apostolates. We went there for 15 years. GREAT CHURCH! GREAT PEOPLE!

[telescope115]

Sorry to say I haven’t been there. My church is St. Anthony of Padua, another old one.

[Dr. Sivana]

My church is St. Anthony of Padua, another old one.

I have been to St. Anthony of Padua. A friendly, but a little off semi-homeless fellow would come to our coffee and donuts, and I would give him a ride to St. Anthony where they sometimes helped him out, and near where he was sort of put up. I think he passed away.

St. Anthony is a nice church.

St. Mary Oratory is in downtown Rockford, the last beautiful thing there. Fr. Bovee called it "St. Mary's between the Jails" because there were jails both in front of and behind it. At one point, the City was talking about leveling both our 150 year old church, and the Black AME church across the other street to accommodate an underground walkway to the new jail from the old one. We made for an interesting political alliance, and I admit they dressed better than midwestern traditional Catholics on Sunday. After we won, and an alternate route was taken, they got the hint and built a bigger church in another area.