Matt Monro Forum

In October our church sadly closed due to a dwindling congregation thanks to a priest who nobody likes.

Our previous priest was well liked but he was moved to another parish in 2011.

Last night I noticed a lot of of flashing lights down the street and smoke coming from the area where the church is. I phoned my downstairs neighbour who confirmed it was indeed St. Pauls as her sister lives almost opposite and could see the flames. Just then I saw flames coming from the very high ceiling which was beautiful wood inside.

Obviously is is arson but what pleasure can anyone get out of doing such a thing? The church had been boarded up with a For Sale sign outside.

I am just back from laying Christmas wreaths at the cemetery, as I was leaving I met one of our parishoners and I knew he was no fan of our Monsignor, infact he was very rude to Ian during a Christmas mass the first year he was there. Ian said the same as I that this is no accident.

Our church has been built in my lifetime back in the early 70's and I remember as it was being built our priest said Mass in the school hall.

I also made friends with an American deacon back in 1979 and we've been friends ever since and I have been over twice to see him in Iowa, I emailed him last night and he answered very promptly and was deeply saddened at the news as he has very good memories of his time there. Tony has now been a priest for around 34 years.

So sorry to hear this Karl, and it's obviously arson, plainly wanton damage and one can only assume that whatever this church has meant to people the morons responsible wouldn't give that a thought and don't even consider a church being any different from any other building.

Yes L&H we all have our memories.

Our priest at the time in the early days had a beautiful crib that first Christmas with life size figures, he opened the church just for me in the afternoon so's I could take pictures.

Our last priest also had some musical events with the Mosai Warriors I think they were called and others.

And of course my parents were buried from there, so we all have memories which as you say the brainless idiots who do such things have no idea of.
I walked down this afternoon to have a look, there was no roof left - the pavement was taped off and a Panda car there, one of the doors was open and I saw a Policeman standing guard, I also saw one of the sculptures that hung in the church sitting in the front porch, I would have thought the Monsignor would have cleared everything out?

In tonights Evening News it's definitely being called suspicious which is no surprise to me.

Sorry to hear it Karl ...

Wow how horrible. I'm so saddened by this news Karl. Whenever I hear about things like this and it doesn't matter what denomination it really makes me sad. If it was foul play how could that individual do something. I remember when our church was vandalized there is a statue of Jesus and some sheep, our church is called Good Shepherd Catholic Church and some one defaced the statue making the face look demonic, they broke his hand and on the news they showed the culprits simulating having sex with the statue as they took pictures and were posting them everywhere. How sick and disturbing. Well our church cleaned up the statue and made the necessary repairs and charges were pressed against the 3 teenagers who did this.

Karl hopefully your church will rise up and congregate again or you find somewhere else to worship. Hang in there!!

How appalling are many of the younger generation in today's society

Eamon our congregation are now all going to different churches and staying away from St. Margarets where the Monsignor is - it's shame as a lot of nice people went to St Pauls's.

The St, Margaret's crowd are a patronising bunch who think they are superior and yet prior to St. Pauls being built that was our Parish, my sister was married there.

Even our previous parish priest felt very unwelcome there on a recent visit. He had a rough and ready attitude but a good heart, his farewell party proved how much we liked him with the cheque he received - he was overwhelmed.