MOUNT AIRY — Sunday Mass was celebrated on the lawn outside Holy Angels Church in Mount Airy Aug. 23 after a suspected arson damaged the parish's worship space.
Mount Airy fire and police are investigating a suspicious fire that damaged the entrance of the parish's Duncan Center, located at 1208 N. Main St., in the early morning hours of Aug. 22. No injuries were reported.
"The evidence points to an intentionally set fire at the front doors of the fellowship hall," said Mount Airy Fire Chief Zane Poindexter.
The fire was set around 3 a.m. at the entrance to the parish hall, which is now used for most Masses. The blaze damaged the overhang and ruined the doors. Gasoline was poured on the front doors and set on fire, said Father Lawrence Heiney, pastor of Holy Angels Church.
"At 10 (minutes) to 4 a.m., I was awoken to the sound of fire trucks," Father Heiney told the Catholic News Herald. "It wasn't particularly startling because I live next to the fire department, but they didn't seem to be going far. By the time I got outside, the flames were out."
The entrance way, door and exterior canopy sustained most of the damage. The sanctuary area was not burned, but it did suffer smoke damage, Father Heiney said. The fire wall between the entrance and the main hall more than likely spared the rest of the building, he added.
The fire caused an estimated $20,000 in damage, Poindexter said.
No damage was reported to the smaller, nearly 100-year-old church located next to the Duncan Center.
The fire was certainly "inconvenient," Father Heiney said, but "it's not majorly traumatic – though it certainly disrupts our routine."
Masses could continue to be held outside or be moved to a neighboring church which has offered Holy Angels' parishioners use of their space while repairs are made, Father Heiney said.
"We can't use the building for services or activities until the smoke is removed and the door replaced," Father Heiney said.
Nothing else needs to be replaced, he said.
Diocese of Charlotte properties officials said the parish's insurer, Catholic Mutual Group, has been notified of the fire and is arranging for a restoration company to clean up the smoke damage.
Mount Airy Police and Fire departments, the State Bureau of Investigation and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms continue to investigate.
"I have no idea who would do this or why," Father Heiney said. "It could be a random person wanting to cause damage. We can't rule anything out."
Parishioners reacted "as expected" and some felt personally assaulted by the event because it's their place of worship, he said.
Holy Angels, one of the northernmost parishes in the diocese, is comprised of about 200 registered families.
— Kimberly Bender, Catholic News Herald. Damage photos provided by Mary Gilreath via Facebook. View more pictures on Holy Angels Facebook Page.
No damage was caused to the nearly 100 year old church.
CHARLOTTE — Several hundred people came to protest outside the four Planned Parenthood facilities located in western North Carolina Aug. 22 – part of a nationwide "Protest Planned Parenthood" rally calling for an end to support for the nation's largest abortion provider.
Anti-abortion protesters prayed, gave speeches and held signs Saturday outside Raleigh-based Planned Parenthood South Atlantic's branches in Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro and Winston-Salem. Nationwide, more than 300 protests were scheduled that day.
Planned Parenthood has come under fire recently with the release of undercover videos showing their officials describing the harvesting and sale at their clinics of body parts from aborted babies – some purportedly born alive. Seven videos released so far by the California-based Center for Medical Progress have provoked scrutiny from state and federal leaders, and five states to date have moved to withdraw Medicaid funding from their local Planned Parenthood branches.
South Carolina has announced an investigation of its Planned Parenthood locations, but North Carolina has not.
Planned Parenthood performed 327,653 abortions in 2013 – one-third of all abortions in the U.S. that year – according to its latest annual report. At Planned Parenthood South Atlantic's nine North Carolina locations, six including Charlotte do abortion referrals and three – Asheville, Wilmington and Winston-Salem – perform abortions. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic bills itself as "one of the region's largest Planned Parenthood affiliates," with 15 locations spanning North and South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.
In Asheville – Planned Parenthood's newest North Carolina location – more than 200 anti-abortion protestors and a handful of Planned Parenthood supporters staged opposing rallies along McDowell Street on Saturday. More than two dozen anti-abortion protestors also held a "Honk for Life" rally on Friday.
"The event was peaceful, but not necessarily quiet," said Meredith Hunt, one of the organizers. Hunt and others have kept up a steady prayer vigil outside the Planned Parenthood facility since it was first under construction last year. The location opened in January, and in April it began performing abortions.
In Greensboro, organizers counted more than 185 people at their rally outside Planned Parenthood's Battleground Avenue location on Saturday.
"The protest went well, and I was amazed at the turnout," said one of the organizers, Robert Bauer, in an email afterwards. "This from less than a week's notice. Many only heard about it in the last two days. Praise God!"
About 300 people came out to the Winston-Salem rally, organizers reported.
The largest turnout of all of Saturday's rallies was at Planned Parenthood's Charlotte Health Center, where Cities4Life organizers said they counted more than 1,000 protestors. Following the two-hour protest, approximately 100 people went to pray and protest outside Charlotte's busiest abortion mill, A Preferred Women's Health Center on Latrobe Drive.
Protestors called for people to sign petitions to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood and to spur investigations of its fetal tissue harvesting practices. They also encouraged more participation in regular prayer vigils held nearly every day outside the abortion facilities in each city, and for more support of crisis pregnancy services to help abortion-minded women be able to choose life.
The Aug. 22 protests were coordinated nationally by the Columbus, Ohio-based group "Created Equal," as well as the Pro-Life Action League, Citizens for a Pro-life Society and 40 Days for Life.
A week earlier, an estimated 400 people also packed the sidewalk along Albemarle Road in front of Planned Parenthood's Charlotte location. That rally was organized by a new network of pro-life groups in the Charlotte area – the Catholic Pro-Life Action Network of Charlotte.
— Catholic News Herald. Photos provided.