Lightning Strike Sparks Fire, Destroys Legionaries of Christ Home Near Atlanta| National Catholic Register
Father Reilly told CNA the priests were also able to secure the Blessed Sacrament to ensure it would not be damaged by the fire. The home for the Legionaries of Christ — a Catholic religious congregation of priests — in the Atlanta, Georgia...
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Father Reilly told CNA the priests were also able to secure the Blessed Sacrament to ensure it would not be damaged by the fire.
The home for the Legionaries of Christ — a Catholic religious congregation of priests — in the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area was destroyed in a fire after being struck by a lightning bolt in the early morning hours of Sunday, Feb. 16.
No one was injured in the fire, which began around 4:45 a.m., but the home was completely engulfed in flames and burned to the ground. The building, which housed four priests and three missionaries, is located on Woodsong Trail in Cumming, Georgia, about 40 miles northeast of Atlanta.
“The fire just spread so quickly because the wind was blowing,” Father Scott Reilly, LC, who lives in a separate structure right next to the building and witnessed the fire, told CNA.
Father Reilly, who was awoken by the sound of the lightning strike on the building, told CNA he first “thought it just hit a tree,” but “within two minutes, I [was] smelling smoke.” He said he looked outside to “see glowing out of the windows … [and] sure enough our house was on fire.”
“I put my slippers on and ran across the patio [to alert the other priests],” Father Reilly said.
The building in which Father Reilly lives, which is right next to the main house, was not damaged by the fire. Another building, a remodeled garage that houses four additional priests in the community, was also not damaged. In total, nine priests and three missionaries for Regnum Christi Mission Corps live in the community.
On the morning of the fire, the missionaries and most of the community’s priests were working elsewhere and not home. Reilly and the three other priests who were present were able to get to safety and call the fire department shortly after the fire began. Although the fire department arrived quickly, Reilly told CNA “they could only do so much” to control the fire.
In a statement, Father Reilly said the priests’ neighbors assisted them during the fire.
“Our neighbors are amazing,” Father Reilly said. “They came to our aid right away. We went over to the neighbors right in front of us, who gave us coffee and whatever we needed. They had breakfast for us and were all so kind.”
Father Reilly told CNA the priests were also able to secure the Blessed Sacrament to ensure it would not be damaged by the fire.
The priests who lost their home in the fire were offered places to stay by local families who own vacant homes in the area and by diocesan priests. The Legionaries of Christ have also received more than $65,000 in donations through GoFundMe over the past two days to support costs that are not covered by insurance.
“There hasn’t been a shortage of people offering things,” Father Father Reilly said.
Father Reilly said the support from priests and the community “has been so beautiful,” adding that the response to the fire shows “how Christ makes himself present in [the] charity that people show one another.”
Although the house was insured, the GoFundMe notes that not all of the costs will be covered by insurance. It states that the expected costs include the demolition of the rest of the building, the subsequent clean-up effort, temporary housing, rebuilding costs, and the replacement of household goods and personal belongings.
The GoFundMe fundraiser also notes that the Legionaries of Christ “are deeply grateful for the tremendous outpouring of concern, support, and prayers they have quickly begun to receive from people across the Atlanta area as they grapple with this situation.”
“Please prayerfully consider helping … with the many upfront and long-term expenses that will not be covered by their insurance policy as they recover from this situation and make plans to rebuild,” the GoFundMe fundraiser adds.
The Legionaries of Christ, which is part of the Regnum Christi Federation, works to spread the faith through education, evangelization, youth work, and providing spiritual care and formation for Regnum Christi members, according to Regnum Christi North America’s website.
Father Reilly said the Legionaries of Christ help “lay people to develop their skills and to be missionary disciples” of the Church and tries to “engage Catholics to change culture.”
