St. Bede the Venerable Fire Update

The Center Piece of the Changes

2010-11-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

The picture shows the framing against the sanctuary wall that will house the statues of Mary and Joseph which stood much further out of the sanctuary.

The faming will be covered in a stone tile and the statues will sit in the niches in the middle of each side.

The center wall will be painted a deep rich burgundy with a gold stenciling after the wall has been cleaned again. (You can see the outline of the cross which is a result of smoke damage to the building.)

A true and interesting story:

The cross was mounted to the wall by three brackets. When the cross was taken down from the wall, one had pulled half way out of the wall, the cross was not attached to the second bracket and the final bracket was attached, but half the screws had been pulled out of the wall. As one construction worker said, "That cross was hanging on by a prayer."

Next time anybody asked you why we had a fire at St. Bede tell them, "It was divine intervention, a miracle. If we had not have had the fire, Fr. Carucci might have been crushed to death by Jesus and the cross in the middle of Mass."

While I'm not opposed to taking UP my cross every day, I really don't want the cross to come down on me! What would the Baptist say!

Progress at last!

2010-11-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

We have begun to make a great deal of progress on the church restoration.

We will post picture to keep you in the loop as things progress. We will not be "finished" by Christmas, but we are still hoping to able to use the church for the Christmas services.

We are getting there. Thanks for your support.

A Building Permit and workers, at last!

2010-10-29T13:22:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned last Sunday, the city has finally issued a building permit which has allowed our contractor to begin working. They have been busy all week. They have removed all the antiquated electrical systems and begun to replace them with state of the art components. (This was the big hold-up with the permit. All the electrical systems had to be brought up to the current building code.) The altar, ambo and baptismal font have been removed along with the old wooden sanctuary floor and the floors are being prepared for tiling.

It’s all very exciting and things are moving very quickly. I know that people are excited, but please remember that the church is an active construction site, so please do not wander in for a look. It is dangerous and you will only slow the progress.

We are still aiming to be back in by Christmas, even if everything isn’t totally complete, but we will have better idea of our completion date next week. Now we actually have something to show you, we will also be posting pictures. Also, by next week we will have some renderings of the project posted in the school for everybody to see.

As always, thank you for your patience and your support.

Sorry for the long silence

2010-09-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long silence on the progress of the church restoration.

I have not had anything concrete to report since the Scriptorium was published, but everyday we have almost had something to report. We have been waiting for the architects to finish the final plans and give us a stamped set of blueprints so that we can get a building permit from the city. They finished the plans today! So finally we can get started with the interior repairs.

As you know there was extensive damage to the roof and the interior, but the main holdup has revolved around some upgrades to the electrical service to the church that were required to bring the building up to code. We all want to be back in the church as soon as possible, but we want to make sure the job is done right.

Everyone has been asking, “When will be back into the church?” That’s a great question, and we should be able to give a more definite answer by the end of next week, but if all goes well we should be back in the church by Christmas.

As always, thank you for your support. Remember that the Church is not a building. It is you and I and together we make St. Bede a welcoming community of faith in action whether we are in the cafeteria or in the church.

God Bless.

Fr. Carucci

2010-07-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

Here We Go!

Finally, we have some pictures to share.

Earlier this week we the roofers delivered the planking for the church roof. It is currently being stained inside the church and construction should begin on the roof Monday. If all goes well, they should be finished with the roof in a week.

Other contracts are in Mobile for review and approval and we should be getting the green light on them in the near future. I hope to have much more to share with you once I return on August 11^th. In the mean time enjoy the rest of your summer and try to stay cool.

Progress!!

2010-07-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

We have finally made some progress. The insurance company has given the green light to our roofing contractor. They are currently having the roof timbers milled. (The decking is 3 1/2 “ thick tongue and groove pine. You cannot pick that stuff up at Home Depot!) We hope that they will start the roof repairs next week.

The architects are finishing up the specs for the sacristy and the sanctuary and the plan is to have them bid out next week as well.

Once the roof is repaired, then work can begin in earnest. Then we will actually have pictures to show you again!

As always, thank you for your support and patience.

Very Slowly . . .

2010-06-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

Very, very slowly, but at this point it seems unavoidable.

Even worse there are no pictures to send!

We are now waiting for the insurance company to approve the roofing contractor. Until that happens “work” cannot progress. In the meantime the cleaning up process has gone as far as possible until the charred ceiling beams are removed.

We have initial estimates on the damage to the vestments and altar linens, and the total is well over $50,000. As you know many of these items are antique and irreplaceable. When we get a final figure we will share it with you. The good news is that a very large portion of the vestments we salvageable.

I want to thanks the lady’s of the Altar Guild and the others who ironed, mended and help the hundreds and hundreds of pieces of linen, lace and vestments. I also want to thank the lady’s of the Dorcas Society who came to me to offer make a backdrop for the altar in the school cafeteria. It has been wonderful to see people step up and get involved.

In cooperation with Service Masters, we have determined that as much of the stains have been removed from the brick as possible. We do not feel that it is sufficient, and we are examining our options to make sure that the interior does not have any charred brick.

We have bids or estimates for:

1. New lights – something not covered by insurance

2. New Sound system – covered

3. New Electrical system – mostly covered

We are expecting bids on a new A/C unit for the church and other code upgrades. We should have them from the architects this week.

We are also consulting with the architects and designers on the materials for the floor covering. A portion of this will also be covered by insurance, but are also looking to fix some of the problems that pre-existed in the sanctuary floor.

The designers and the committee are also looking at the back wall of the sanctuary. We will make some suggestions to warm up that area. We should have some initial ideas to present in the near future.

One of the committee’s tasks as we began this project was to see if there were any other improvements or additions that we wanted to make while the church was closed. This seems to the time for dreaming. It has always been generally agreed that the entry way to the TOO SMALL. The architects have made an initial proposal and the projected price was smaller than the committee expected. As soon as they give us a rendering of their idea, we will share it with you.

I think you will be excited by the possibilities! Thank you for your continued prayers and support during this difficult time.

Making progress - slowly

2010-06-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

This is the second rack of vestments that were damaged or not properly cleaned. The cleaners will pick these up and “re-clean” them before we declare them a loss. There are also 13 boxes of albs and vestments that they declared “unsalvageable.” They biggest job right now is the sorting and inventorying the damaged vestments for the claim.

St. Ann’s Altar Guild and several other willing ladies are spending the next few days ironing the vestments that were successfully cleaned. Wednesday morning after Tom Reillo’s bible study a group of volunteers and I will be sorted the damaged vestments and trying to assess exactly what we lost. (Anyone interested in helping can join us in the parish hall around 10:15.)

The final bids on the roof repair are scheduled to be here on Thursday and the property management people from the diocese assure me that the insurance company will approve a contractor by the end of the week. Once the roof is complete, the rest of the renovation should not take too terrible long.

The working group has contracted an architectural firm to help with the sound, lighting and design. As soon as we have anything from them, I will share it with you. We will also share our list of proposed improvements.

This week’s update is pretty short.

2010-06-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

The clean-up is done – for now.

Most of the bids for work are in and we are now waiting on the insurance company to give us the green light to start the roof repairs. Hopefully, it will be forth coming because we cannot do anything else until the roof is repaired.

Our working group met this morning with a local architectural firm to talk about the renovation and to get some professional input into the planning process. Next week we should have a better idea of the scope of the renovation and the cost over and above the insurance settlement.

Next week I will also put out a preliminary list of upgrades and changes that the working group is considering and solicit feedback from the parish.

Please note: the school Bathrooms are being renovated this summer. This means that the only bathroom in the building will be the faculty bathroom. The parish Hall bathrooms will be available for use during Mass. We apologize for the inconvenience, but this is the only time that MCPS can renovate.

Where do we go from here?

2010-05-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

This week saw the first meeting of the working group to make recommendations about the restoration. The group is intentionally small at this moment, but we will grow as time passes and our needs change. Currently the committee consists of:

· Myself as pastor

· Gabe Riesco, business manager

· Jack Galassini, Finance Council Liaison

· Ramona Salder, Pastoral Council liaison

· Deacon Gulley

· David Barranco

We meet Wednesday to begin to talk about our options and to “Dream” about the possibilities. We have agreed that we need to bring in a professional designer to help us make educated and artful choices. As we get further down the road I will share our thoughts with you and elicit your feedback and ask for other suggestions.

One way I will measure parish opinion will be through informal (and non-bindingJ) polls here on this blog. The poll made it clear that the vast majority of people wanted the statues preserved. We are trying to make that happen! Our next poll will be to see if people want the pews cushioned. Please let me know your thoughts by responding to the poll and leaving responses to this post.

Linen and Silk Don’t Like Smoke and Water

2010-05-28T09:18:00.001-07:00

At the end of Week Three we have made a great deal of progress. The “clean-up” Phase of the restoration is almost complete.

1. The smoke damage has been “ice-blasted” off the entire inside of the church and sacristy.

2. The A/C duct work has been totally cleaned out – from the inside!

3. The windows, doors and fixtures have all been cleaned.

4. The Sacristy has been stripped down to the bare brick and is ready for restoration.

5. We have started to get vestments back and the cleaners did a wonderful job of removing the smoke smell from them. There are however a large number that were damaged by water and or the cleaning process itself. These are generally the older fine linen albs and silk vestments. (Sorting through the vestments to determine which have been ruined has been the most emotionally challenging part of this process so far for me. I keep reminding myself that they are just things and they can be replaced, even if they are old and beautiful.)

6. The insurance adjuster has cleared us to get bids for the roof repair, sacristy rebuild, flooring, sound and electrical work. Some of this work should start next week, but the roof repairs – the single largest project – will probably not start for a couple of weeks. We are waiting on another bid and the wood planking will have to specially milled. Unfortunately, a great deal of the work cannot be done until after the roof is repaired.

Next week, Service Masters will work of the stubborn smoke stains that the ice blasting failed to remove and begin the work to restore the pews.

We received good news on the piano, it is fine and being stored. There is, however, some concern about the electronics in the organ. The organ company is worried that the smoke has damaged them and they are trying to determine the level of the damage and the appropriate remedy – repair the damage or replace the whole organ.

Weekly Update #2

2010-05-21T11:36:00.000-07:00

I just got back into town last night and the first thing I did this morning was check out the progress on the church clean-up.

There has been a great deal of progress:

The organ was moved out Last Thursday (5/13) and taken to Forbe’s for cleaning and storage.

The pews are in Tuscaloosa cleaning and storage. Several where severely damaged.

As you can see in picture above, our sound system was destroyed. A sound technician is working up a proposal for us to look at.

The roofing company is determining how long it will take to fabricate replacement materials for the roof. (It is 3.5” thick tongue in groove planks!)

This week the statues and the crucifix have been cleaned and the ceiling has been “ice blasted” to remove the smoke damage. They are staring on the walls today.

Most of the vestments have been returned, but I have not had a chance to go through them to assess the damage yet. As you can see in the picture of the sacristy the fire was very close to the vestments and everything in the drawers, including all my very old vestments, were destroyed.

On an unrelated and happier note, there is a new fountain and agapanthus bed next to the front entrance to the office, and the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine and the new St. Bede sign have been landscaped. These are just the latest in a number of efforts to beautify the grounds. These efforts by the staff have lead parishioners wanting to get more involved. The St. Bede Garden Club had its first meeting and 18 people were present. They are interested in helping keep the parish grounds beautiful. We have done a great deal of work in the past few years and I hope that the new Garden Club is going to take our grounds to a whole new level.

Holy Family Poll

2010-05-21T11:16:00.000-07:00

The results are in from our first survey of the parish. I asked people for their feelings about the statues of the Holy Family that were severely damaged in the fire. 89% of people thought that we ought to try and find some way to preserve them as part of our parish’s heritage. There were a couple of wonderful comments that I would like to share with you:

Can you imagine the number of children "encouraged" by their moms over the years to stand next to these statues for that special First Communion or Confirmation photo? They are as much a part of our history as the Church itself. Please, please try to preserve these beautiful statues...

And another parishioner wrote:

The statues are a wonderful reminder of the spirit of our faith....even a fire could not destroy it.

We will look for a way to preserve them, (although, at this point no one is exactly sure how) so they can serve as a reminder to future generations what a parish is all about – people not stuff. A fire can only destroy a building, it cannot destroy a community!

Say Thank You to the MFD

2010-05-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

The following fire houses responded to our fire last Wednesday.

Please keep all the firemen in your prayers and please thank them as you see fit.

(Cookies are always nice!)

Lagoon Park Engine 5

Coliseum Blvd. Engine 11

Forest Avenue Engine 6

Carmichael Road Engine 3

Carmichael Road Truck 45

Lower Wetumpka Rd Truck 44

The Holy Family

2010-05-12T09:48:00.001-07:00

The statue of Mary and Jesus and the statue of St. Joseph were severely damaged in the fire. Despite the damage, you can still clearly identify the statues. We thought Jesus’ head had been lost in the fire, but Ruth Glenboski was determined to find it and dug through the debris until she found it. (It had not been recovered at the time of this picture.)

There has been some discussion about what we should do with the statues. There are those who would like to try and preserve them and find a place for them, perhaps in a prayer garden, and there are those who think they would only serve a bitter reminder of the fire. Let me know what you think or if you have a better idea, please share it with us.

Pictures of the Fire

2010-05-12T09:37:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post the fire started in the area of the Holy Family Shrine. The fire marshal and the insurance investigator have not made a final determination as to the cause of the fire, but the pictures below show some of the damage.

You can see the fire damage. The "white" area on the ceiling just outside the shrine is the sky. This is where the MFD had to cut through the roof to ensure that the fire was totally out. You can also see the water on the floor and the proximity of the audio equipment to the heat of the fire and the water. They will have to be totally replaced.

Week 1 Update

2010-05-11T08:00:00.002-07:00

Follow the progress at www.SaintBedeFireUpdate.blogspot.com

Each week I will endeavor to keep the parishioners and friends of St. Bede apprised of the progress that we have made in the wake of the fire we suffered in the church on Wednesday morning, May 5, 2010.

Our insurance adjuster has made a preliminary assessment and will be working with during the restoration in order to help us rebuild. Catholic Mutual, our insurance company, has also sent a fire investigator who is working with members of the MFD’s Fire marshals to assess the exact cause of the fire. We will share their findings as soon as they become public.

Service Masters has been contracted by St. Bede to do the initial clean up in the wake of the fire. Wednesday they removed the carpet which had been soaked by the fire hoses; removed all the furniture, fixtures and vestments from the church to have them professionally cleaned, and set up dehumidifiers to control the moisture in the building. They have continued to clean the inside of the church and this week they will remove the pews for cleaning and “ice blast” the inside of the church. This is a process by which dry ice is used to remove soot and smoke damage from the walls and ceiling.

We have gotten a few vestments back from the cleaners, but the bulk of them are still being cleaned. The process seems to have worked fairly well, although some of the vestments still smell of smoke.

What is happening this week:

1. We have had a roofer out to assess the damage to the roof and are awaiting a report.

2. We have scheduled an architect to inspect the damage and determine whether or not the walls and ceiling are sound. (There is some concern about the support pillar that was closest to the fire.)

3. Electricians have made an initial assessment and will develop a plan to replace the damaged wiring.

4. We are contacting an audio engineer to help us redesign a sound system. Our old system was completely destroyed by the fire.

5. As soon as the demolition is finished in the sacristy, shrine and confessional we will bring in contractors to submit bid to repair the damage.

6. The piano was removed last week to be cleaned and stored, and the organ is being removed this week.

I will be out of town until May 20^th (which happens to be my 15^th anniversary of ordination to the Priesthood), but work will continue in my absence. Upon my return we will set up a working group to provide advice and oversight on the construction project. At that time we begin to talk about our options as we move forward. This week is about cleaning up and assessing the extent of the damage.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

The Doors are Fine!

2010-05-11T08:00:00.001-07:00

Doors by Decora has checked the new doors they are fine, thanks be to God.

The front doors were removed to allow access for a large lift that Service Masters needs to “ice blast” the church. We decided to keep the doors off until the lift is removed to protect them from damage.

Mass Times

2010-05-11T07:59:00.000-07:00

Monday – Friday 6:30 AM – Parish Hall

Wednesday and Saturday – 8:15 AM – Parish Hall

Tuesday Spanish Mass – 6:00 PM – Parish Hall

Friday School Mass – 8:15 AM – School Cafeteria

Saturday Vigil and Sunday Masses – School Cafeteria

"The Church is on Fire!!" - May 5. 2010

2010-05-11T07:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

As many of you have heard, there was a fire in the church at St. Bede yesterday. The fire started in the Holy Family shrine and did considerable damage to the church and the sacristy. We are currently working the Montgomery Fire Department and our insurance adjustor to determine the extent of the damage. Once we have a better idea of how extensive the damage is, we will begin to make plans to repair the damage. I will keep you informed of any new information as it becomes available.

I told reporters yesterday that all we lost was a building and that the church was not a building, but rather the people. Over the last eighteen years since I first moved to Montgomery, I have grown to respect and love the families that call St. Bede home. While this fire is tragic and will cause us some inconvenience, I believe that this is an opportunity for us to draw together as a parish and truly be a welcoming community of faith in action.

As I mentioned on television and in the paper, there will be absolutely no interruption in any parish services. The office is open and all groups and activities are proceeding more or less as usual.* Until the church is repaired, all of our weekday Masses will be in the parish hall and the Vigil Mass and the Sunday Masses will be in the school cafeteria. (St. Bede started in the cafeteria over 50 years ago, so this will be like a trip down memory lane!)

I want to thank Fire Chief Milford Jordan and the Montgomery Fire Depart. They responded to our 911 call in four minutes and displayed the kind of dedication and professionalism that deserves to be commended. They quickly assessed the situation and determined that our children were not at risk and they spared no effort to ensure that fire was out and that everyone was safe. One fireman suffered a broken ankle and is scheduled for surgery today. Please keep him and his family in your prayers as he begins his recovery.

I want to single out Assistant Chief Kelly Gordon for special thank. As the MFD was battling the fire, I asked the Chief if one of his men could possible retrieve the Blessed Sacrament from the Tabernacle. Without hesitation, Chief Gordon said, “I’ll do it.” As he ran to gear up, I ran to get a key to the Tabernacle. Key in hand, he entered the burning building to rescue of Lord from the flames. (Chief Gordon’s daughter is in Kindergarten here at MCPS.)

Anne Ceasar, MCPS president, had been on campus for a meeting earlier in the day. As soon as she heard about the fire she returned to assess the situation from the schools perspective. Once she determined that the children were safe she communicated that to parents via our IRIS system. She then modified the afternoon pick-up in order to protect our children’s safety. Anne did a marvelous job in assuring the safety of our students. She should be commended. I also want to thank Susan Duke, principal of MCPS grade school, she worked wonderfully with Anne, the parish and the MFD to guarantee the safety of our students and to reassure parents that their kids were safe.

I also want thank the parishioners who stopped by yester to lend a hand, offer support, or simply be present. Everyone asked, “What can I do?” Yesterday my main answer was pray and thank God that no one was seriously injured. I assure you, there will be plenty of opportunities to pitch in and help over the next several months. I encourage of you to get involved in this rebuilding effort, because in truth we are not repairing a building, but building up a family in the name of the Lord.