The charred remains of St. Colman Catholic Church in Shady Spring, West Virginia, which was destroyed in a suspected arson attack on Sunday, June 26, 2022. / Courtesy of Beaver Volunteer Fire Department. See CNA article for full slideshow.
Mansfield, Mass., Jun 27, 2022 / 09:22 am (CNA).
St. Colman Catholic Church, a historic church located Raleigh County, West Virginia, burned to the ground in an apparent arson attack Sunday, according to the local volunteer fire department.
The church is known as “The Little Catholic Church on Irish Mountain,” and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“On 6/26/2022 units from Beaver VFD were alerted to a structure fire at the Saint Colman Catholic Church on Irish Mountain Road in Shady Spring, WV,” the Beaver Volunteer Fire Department said in an online post.
Once the department arrived at the scene, the church had already burned to the ground and was “smoldering,” the post says. The post says the fire is considered “suspicious in nature.” The fire is being investigated as arson, the post says.
St. Colman’s is located in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. CNA contacted the diocese for more information but no one was immediately available for comment Monday morning.
St. Colman Catholic Church and Cemetery in Raleigh County, West Virginia, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The church is known as “The Little Church on Irish Mountain.”. National Register of Historic Places photo
The fire department is asking anyone with relevant information to contact West Virginia State Police Trooper D. Daniels at (304) 256-6700. Other points of contact are the West Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Arson Hotline at 1 (800) 233-3473, Crime Stoppers of Raleigh County at 304-255-STOP, or www.crimestopperswv.com.”
This is a developing story.
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CNA Staff, Aug 21, 2020 / 08:00 am (CNA).- The U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee praised the Trump administration on Thursday after a federal ethics advisory board recommended against federal funding of fetal tissue research.
Boise, Idaho, Jul 18, 2018 / 04:15 pm (CNA).- Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit Tuesday opposing a new Idaho law that requires abortion providers to report abortion-related medical complications to state authorities.
Children look on during a procession at the General Assembly that was held in Mingende in the Kundiawa Diocese in 2022. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands
CNA Newsroom, May 8, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Children and youth will be central to Pope Francis’ visit to Papua New Guinea from Sept. 6–9, according to Father Giorgio Licini, secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Solomon Islands.
Licini, who is on the organizing committee of the Holy Father’s 2024 visit, said young people are central in the planning of the papal trip to Papua New Guinea. In the Catholic Church, “the level of participation by laity and youth is high,” he said. “Everything is ‘young’ in PNG: church, country, modern civilization.”
“It was only in early October 2023 that our bishops’ conference was told that the pope still had a great desire to visit Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea in Oceania,” Licini told CNA.
Women gather during the General Assembly held in Mingende in the Kundiawa Diocese in Papua New Guinea in 2022. Credit: Photo courtesy of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands
As part of his apostolic journey, Pope Francis is expected to visit a safe house for young girls in Vanimo and then, in the nearby village of Baro, greet missionaries, staff, and students of a school he helped develop. In Port Moresby, the Holy Father intends to meet with children supported by the archdiocese’s ministries for the care of street children.
“The youth here greatly suffer for lack of education and employment opportunities. The breakdown of the family adds to neglect, poverty, and micro-criminality,” Licini explained. “Besides education and health, nowadays the social services of the Catholic Church focus on family life, child protection and promotion, domestic violence, and sorcery accusations related [to] violence, corruption awareness, and justice, peace, and reconciliation, mainly in [areas affected by tribal violence].”
The last appointment of the papal visit in Papua New Guinea will be a youth festival at the city stadium in Port Moresby.
Isabella Saleu, a young laywoman working for Caritas Papua New Guinea — the justice, peace, relief, and development agency of the Catholic Church in the country — said she looks forward to the youth festival planned with the pope and believes his visit will be a “spiritually enriching experience” that will reinforce the Catholic identity in the country.
“The world needs us young people and all the enthusiasm we have to make it better, safer, happier and more Christ-like,” Saleu told CNA. “Over the years, the Church has not only evangelized but [also] has contributed immensely to delivering basic services by providing schools and institutions, hospitals, clinics and aid posts, safe houses, and facilities for pastoral and social services.”
“Considering also the recent fateful events of ‘Black Wednesday’ on Jan. 10 that resulted in deaths and hospitalization, as the country came to a standstill when thugs took over the streets of the capital city Port Moresby who looted and burned down shops and caused the city to tremble in fear as police ceased duties, we hope that the papal visit raises our spirits to continue to move forward as a nation,” she added.
Catholics from Papua New Guinea during the General Assembly that was held in Mingende in the Kundiawa Diocese in 2022. Credit: Photo courtesy of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands
To date, over 98% of Papua New Guinea citizens identify as Christian. Catholicism represents the largest Christian denomination in the country with an estimated 4 million people — about 25% of the total population.
Pope Francis’ visit to Papua New Guinea will be his first trip to the country as part of his 11-day Asia Pacific apostolic journey in September. Pope John Paul II visited Papua New Guinea in 1984 and 1995.
There are many adversaries against Christ. When we do wrong it emboldens them. When we do what is honouring to Christ, goodness and peace come back towards us. Many sacrificed to build and maintain the church, may their deeds be ascribed to the gift of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us. The world does not understand the following verses, yet we who love the Lord, understand that He is on His throne and will reward those who love Him.
This act is against God. Our lives here are fraught, yet Christ has conquered and loves us. That is most important.
Romans 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
1 Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 John 4:4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
2 Corinthians 2:14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
A church near me which was not an active church but an historic one in a park was recently vandalized, all the windows broken and the doors kicked in. People are getting away with this because they are not punished when captured.Attacks on houses of worship should be treated like the hate crimes which they are. And the punishment should be serious. While the anti-religion DEMs are in charge, dont count on it.
The remoteness of the church means that the members probably didn’t see the building as a likely target. However, my surmise is that someone locally did this. Regardless, burning the church won’t stop God’s work no matter how hard the abortionists try.
It is not like the Church had not be warned that the atheistic anarchists were coming…..
There are many adversaries against Christ. When we do wrong it emboldens them. When we do what is honouring to Christ, goodness and peace come back towards us. Many sacrificed to build and maintain the church, may their deeds be ascribed to the gift of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us. The world does not understand the following verses, yet we who love the Lord, understand that He is on His throne and will reward those who love Him.
This act is against God. Our lives here are fraught, yet Christ has conquered and loves us. That is most important.
Romans 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
1 Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 John 4:4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
2 Corinthians 2:14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
A church near me which was not an active church but an historic one in a park was recently vandalized, all the windows broken and the doors kicked in. People are getting away with this because they are not punished when captured.Attacks on houses of worship should be treated like the hate crimes which they are. And the punishment should be serious. While the anti-religion DEMs are in charge, dont count on it.
The remoteness of the church means that the members probably didn’t see the building as a likely target. However, my surmise is that someone locally did this. Regardless, burning the church won’t stop God’s work no matter how hard the abortionists try.