For now, Mass is being celebrated in a different location on campus. As for what caused the fire, Markey believes that it was the improper disposal of incense following the Easter Vigil Mass the night before.
He said that one of the newer altar servers may have disposed of the foil, charcoal, and incense in the trash bin instead of leaving it in the thurible to cool overnight. The thurible is the vessel in which incense is burned during the liturgy.
Markey said that as he was walking through the sacristy with the fire chief after the blaze, he discovered that there were no incense, charcoal pieces, or ashes in the thurible.
“I knew instantly that was the cause of the fire. Somebody took it out and threw it in the garbage,” he said. “Where the garbage was, that’s where the heart of the fire was.”
“They probably wrapped up the tin foil and then just thought they were doing the right thing and just put it in the garbage,” he said.
“We could have lost the whole church. We’re just so very grateful we didn’t,” he said.
Thomas Aquinas College’s campus in Santa Paula, California, was founded in 1971. The New England campus was added to the college in 2019. The two campuses have a combined enrollment of 439 undergraduate students. The college, which is dedicated to ”renewing what is best in the Western intellectual heritage and to conducting liberal education under the guiding light of the Catholic faith,” receives no funding from the government or the Catholic Church.
Joseph Bukuras is a journalist at the Catholic News Agency. Joe has prior experience working in state and federal government, in non-profits, and Catholic education. He has contributed to an array of publications and his reporting has been cited by leading news sources, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Catholic University of America. He is based out of the Boston area.