Church Fire Follow-Up 11:07 pm
Every Sunday, dozens of families head into the Holy Family Catholic Church in Hooversville for mass, but not this week. “I noticed that I saw a burst of fire from the wall, so I immediately called 911.” That’s what Father Karl did Friday morning, and a few hours later, the church hall and rectory burnt to the ground. “I lost my mother and father’s wedding picture, I lost pictures of my ordination, and a picture of me and my dog,” said Reverend Karl Kolodziejski, O.F.M. Conv.
A miracle: the church itself was saved with just “minor damage” on the inside, according to Chad Maurer, Assistant Fire Chief for the Hooversville Fire Department. Father Karl said as the fire alarms were blaring the song “Come Holy Ghost” started playing in the church. “That’s just weird. To me, it’s sort of like telling the people that things are under God’s control,” Father Karl said.
Priest Reacts to Church Fire
But not this week.
“I noticed that I saw a burst of fire from the wall, so I immediately called 911.”
That’s what Father Karl did Friday morning, and a few hours later, the church hall and rectory burnt to the ground.
“I lost my mother and father’s wedding picture, I lost pictures of my ordination, and a picture of me and my dog,” said Reverend Karl Kolodziejski, O.F.M. Conv.
A miracle: the church itself was saved with just “minor damage” on the inside, according to Chad Maurer, Assistant Fire Chief for the Hooversville Fire Department.
With Tomorrow being Ash Wednesday and the pandemic still impacting our daily lives the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown says they have changed their methods while s
Courtesy of Dougherty / Keystone Crossroads
The news that Pennsylvania had screwed up the process for putting a constitutional amendment before voters that would allow victims of decades-old sexual abuse to sue hit Jay Sefton hard.
He had let himself hope that things were finally about to change.
“[It] was a real dark wave that came over,” said Sefton, now a therapist in Massachusetts, who says he was abused by a priest in Havertown in 1985.
When the Pennsylvania Department of State failed to advertise the proposed constitutional amendment that had been passed by the legislature, it halted a march toward justice for thousands of victims abused in the commonwealth. The constitutional amendment process takes two years, and unless an emergency provision passes by mid-April, it would be 2023 before victims would be given a window to sue over decades-old sexual abuse claims.
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Shaun Dougherty lobbying for changes to the statute of limitations in Harrisburg in 2019. (Courtesy of Dougherty)
The news that Pennsylvania had screwed up the process for putting a constitutional amendment before voters that would allow victims of decades-old sexual abuse to sue hit Jay Sefton hard.
He had let himself hope that things were finally about to change.
“[It] was a real dark wave that came over,” said Sefton, now a therapist in Massachusetts, who says he was abused by a priest in Havertown in 1985.
When the Pennsylvania Department of State failed to advertise the proposed constitutional amendment that had been passed by the legislature, it halted a march toward justice for thousands of victims abused in the commonwealth. The constitutional amendment process takes two years, and unless an emergency provision passes by mid-April, it would be 2023 before victims would be given a window to sue over decades-old sexual abuse claims.