A year ago, ChicagoÂ’s Holy Name Cathedral was closed so that major structural renovations could be completed. In August it reopened. It will be closed again for some time after todayÂ’s major fire.

An extra-alarm blaze that broke out this morning at Holy Name Cathedral downtown caused extensive fire damage to the roof and attic, but spared the cathedral's sanctuary.

Cardinal Francis George said the cathedral's roof would have to be rebuilt and there was considerable water damage inside. "Chicago has always bounced back from fires and I think we'll bounce back from this," the cardinal said as he left the church.

The fire may have been related to some renovation. Work was being done on pillars in the cathedral and on some deteriorating wood high in the rafters, according Jimmy Lago, chancellor of the Chicago Archdiocese. He said a worker was present at the time the fire broke out, but didn't know if he was working in the area where the fire started.

May God bless the parishioners of Holy Name Cathedral and the people of the Archdiocese of Chicago. And may God also bless the firefighters who put themselves on the line to preserve as much of this historic building as they did.

I ordinarily donÂ’t find it appropriate for reporters to inject their personal feelings into a news story, but in this case I donÂ’t see how it is possible to not do so in the case of a building that has been the spiritual hub of a city for such a long period of time. That is part of why I was touched by this passage in one report.

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine was emotional on the scene.

"What you can see, basically, is the smoke billowing the roof, but what you see in your mind's eyes are all the events and all the emotional moments," Levine said. "My mind goes back to Luciano Pavarotti singing 'Ave Maria' when Pope John Paul II was here. My mind goes back to the funeral of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin inside; the people that were standing around outside and watching. My mind goes back to so many emotional events in the building, which is really a part of the fabric in the community."

Indeed, my mind goes back to the five priesthood ordinations I attended and/or participated in at Holy Name Cathedral during and after my time as a seminarian at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in the early 1990s. Indeed, it was at the last of these (as members of my seminary class was ordained) ordinations that I was blessed with a sense of peace with my departure from the seminary and a recognition that my vocation in life lay in marriage and teaching. It is therefore a special place for me, and so I count myself among those who share in the sense of loss brought by this morningÂ’s events. But I know that after the loss associated this event will come a resurrection that mirrors that of Christ himself, and it is my hope that from this experience will flow much grace upon those whose lives have been impacted today.

Posted by: Greg at 01:36 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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