In the wake of an arson Thursday at a Monroeville Catholic church rectory, the Rev. Michael Conway has been busy.
As pastor of Christ the Divine Shepherd Parish, he’s been rushing between its locations in Monroeville and Penn Hills, meeting with parishioners and leadership and trying to make plans for the immediate future.
“I have 50 different text messages yet to respond to from people, and I don’t even know how many emails and voicemails,” he said.
The two priests inside the rectory at the St. Bernadette site in Monroeville made it out safely Thursday morning, with one, the Rev. Jeremy Mohler, being taken to Forbes Hospital to receive treatment for smoke inhalation. He was released shortly afterward.
The fire at the church rectory was determined by the Allegheny County Fire Marshal to be intentionally set. A Pittsburgh man was arrested Thursday in connection with the rectory fire and several other fires across Allegheny County.
Conway was not in the building when the fire started, but he’s been picking up the pieces since. On Friday morning, after 9 a.m. Mass, Conway and other staff members donned heavy boots and disposable face masks for safety and ventured into the rectory to retrieve what items they could.
The team is working on restoring internet and phone service at the church and removing important documents like baptism records from the office portion of the rectory building. Mass still will be held at St. Bernadette this weekend, the church said in a post on Facebook, and vacation Bible school will proceed as planned next week.
“At this point, everyone is just grateful no one got hurt,” Conway said.
If Mohler hadn’t woken up so quickly that night, things could have been very different, Conway said.
“It’s certainly disruptive, but it’s just a building. We’ll figure it out. We always do,” he said.
Community support
Since the fire, parishioners and community members have been coming together. Members of the Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium, a collaboration of faith communities in the Monroeville area, all reached out to the church to offer help and share space, in case the worship space in St. Bernadette’s had been damaged. The church building was unharmed.
Some people brought dinner — chicken and rice, Greek food and Italian food — to the parish’s other rectory Thursday evening at St. Susanna in Penn Hills, Conway said.
“The real hero of the day is the lady who brought coffee and donuts yesterday morning,” Conway said. “I basically was running on Dunkin’ and adrenaline for most of yesterday.”
For the time being, Conway recommends people keep an eye on the church’s Facebook page for updates. He was grateful for how generous and kind everyone had been and said the church was figuring out what it will need next.
“People want to be generous, and I don’t even know where to direct any of that yet,” Conway said. “People have been really good about asking, can we take up a collection for (the priests), can we donate this, can we buy him stuff? I don’t even think they know what they need just yet.”
Friday morning
Some congregation members were there bright and early for the Friday morning Mass at St. Bernadette, like Mary Alice Taylor, who’s attended the church for more than 50 years. Something like this brings people back as opposed to pushing them away, she said.
“I think that God had a reason for this,” she said. “You don’t let something like this deter you from believing in your faith and what you believe in.”
More people than usual came to Mass on Friday, member Peggy Whalen said.
“It just seems like everybody wants to come together to support the church,” she said.
Conway shared some solace with the parishioners during the Friday morning service. His first reading, he said, was from the First Book of Kings.
“When Elijah stands at the mouth of the cave, and appears before the Lord, and the Lord is not in the earthquake, or in the wind, or in the fire, and he’s in this small, quiet voice,” Conway explained. “It’s not the fire, it’s the voice that matters. What does it mean to stand before the Lord? It means to serve him. We’ll stand before the Lord, and it won’t be the fire, it’ll be the voice, and we’re going to listen to that.”
Related:
• Pittsburgh man charged in fire at Monroeville church, 5 other fires in Allegheny County
• Man charged with setting fires at Monroeville church, former Wilkins restaurant, connected to 4 others
Julia Maruca is a TribLive reporter covering health and the Greensburg and Hempfield areas. She joined the Trib in 2022 after working at the Butler Eagle covering southwestern Butler County. She can be reached at jmaruca@triblive.com.
