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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

A SENSELESS ACT OF VANDALISM AT SACRED HEART CHURCH IN WARNER ROBINS

Monsignor Fred Nijem was my pastor when I was first ordained. We were together at St. Teresa of Avila Church in Albany, Ga from 1980 to 1985. He was very good friends with Father Eugene Walsh, SS, the famous liturgist of that period who would often visit him in Albany, during Holy Week no less, and critque my every move at the Liturgies I celebrated, but I digress. My condolences to Monsignor Nijem and the parish of Sacred Heart!

In March, Sacred Heart is celebrating the 5th anniversary of the dedication of their new Church. I was privileged to be the Master of Ceremonies for this celebration five years ago. I'm so glad that I haven't aged like the people in the post below this one from Holy Wisdom Monastery!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fire Extinguisher? As sad as this is, perhaps it is good sign.

"The water flowed around the altar; even the trench was filled with the water.

At the time for offering sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came forward and said, “LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.

Answer me, LORD! Answer me, that this people may know that you, LORD, are God and that you have turned their hearts back to you.”

The LORD’s fire came down and devoured the burnt offering, wood, stones, and dust, and lapped up the water in the trench.

Seeing this, all the people fell prostrate and said, “The LORD is God! The LORD is God!”"

That fire can't be extinguished.

rcg

Gene said...

When they catch them, they should put them together in a small, airtight box and spray CO2 fire extinghishers into it until they are...well, extinguished.

Marc said...

I can't believe Pin's comment didn't get censored and mine did! Mine was clearly written in jest - whereas Pin literally wants to start burning heretics!

Gene said...

Marc, You bring the matches and I'll stack the wood. LOL!

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

Be nice, people in Warner Robins read this and their hard earned money and blood, sweat and tears went into it and now someone has vandalized the House of God!

Anonymous said...

I am sad for Msgr. Fred and the Sacred Heart Church Community in Warner Robins. I pray that the Lord take away all their pain be with them in this time of chaos and need. Under the leadership of Msgr. Fred, the will recover from this senseless act quickly and move on to serve those in their Church commuity. God's blessings from Macon to my fellow Catholics in Warner Robins. -Stephen B. Conner, Macon.

TCR said...

My heart breaks for our brothers and sisters in Warner Robins. How sad to be forced to lock the doors to keep out those with ill intentions. May God's angels stand guard and protect Sacred Heart Church. Our prayers are with them.

Anonymous said...

I apologize. For some reason, my iPhone (on which I was reading this post) did not show me the video or anything about the vandalism. Additionally, I don't watch TV or read the news. Therefore, I did not know their Church had been vandalized.

No matter how I may feel about their architecture, they do not deserve to have their Church vandalized and it is an affront to God that this has happened since He is really present in every Catholic Church regardless of the style of building.

They will be in my prayers.

Marc

Anonymous said...

My heart goes out to Monsignor Nijem. He was truly devastated by the senseless and costly vandalism. Although I don't agree with the architecture and the modernism of the building monsignor nijem built it with good intentions and to better serve his community. I only wish he had been in clericals to better visually represent his position and the faith. I hope this was an isolated incident.

Father Pablo said...

Thank you for all the prayers and concern. We hope the church will be clean and ready to use again by Friday night. There is a lift currently in the church to clean the ceiling.

P.S. If you run out of your house at 3am because there's a fire you're not worrying about what you're wearing. If you run to the parish from home after you hear it was vandalized and stay there from 4:30pm till 11pm (when the interview was filmed) you don't worry about what you're wearing either.