Updated 10/14/2015

Standing on the front steps of the Shrine of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, 6415 S. Woodlawn Ave., on Oct. 11 — four days after fire tore through the church — Canon Matthew Talarico spoke of resurrection to a crowd of about 250 parishioners and community members that gathered to pray.

“We’re here united together in faith in Christ and in his resurrection so that our community would rise from these ashes,” said Talarico, who is provincial for the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. “Our house may have burned but our home remains because we are a spiritual family.”

The institute staffs the shrine, which is the religious community’s U.S. headquarters.

Behind Talarico the shrine’s open doors gave view to the charred remains of the three-alarm fire that devastated the church on Oct. 7, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

The church property, which includes a priory and St. Martin De Porres House of Hope, is owned by the Archdiocese of Chicago and officials there will determine if the religious community rebuilds on that site or moves to another location.

The fire was first reported at about 5:45 a.m. Oct. 7 but Chicago Fire Department officials believe it had been burning for some time, probably going unnoticed for hours overnight.

Oily rags used to stain the floor spontaneously combusted and started the fire, officials reported.

Archbishop Cupich had called from Rome within a couple of hours of the fire being reported to assure the institute of his support and prayers.

The roof covering about three-quarters of the building eventually fell in. Later firefighters were able to recover the tabernacle containing the Blessed Sacrament and the 18th century Spanish statue of the Infant King, which stood above the high altar.

The church, which was built for the Carmelite-run St. Clara Parish in 1923, burned once before, in 1976. It later became St. Gelasius Parish, after St. Clara merged first with St. Cyril and then Holy Cross Parish in 1990. St. Gelasius closed in 2002, and the building was slated for demolition when the archdiocese determined that it could not afford the work necessary to make the building safe.

Architectural preservationists were fighting the demolition of the Renaissance revival structure when the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, an international institute devoted to the celebration of the Tridentine Mass, agreed to take it over.

Since 2004, the institute has worked on renovating the church and developing a growing community of worshippers, many of whom come a great distance for Mass and other devotions. Its website says that when the institute planned the renovation, it expected it to cost more than $7 million.

On Oct. 11, the community gathered for Sunday Mass at St. Thomas the Apostle Church, 5472 S. Kimbark, just nine blocks north of the shrine.

Msgr. R. Michael Schmitz, vicar general of the institute, celebrated Mass and told those gathered that the worldwide institute community was praying for them and collecting money to help.

In his homily, Schmitz tackled why God allows bad things to happen in the world.

“He certainly does not bring the evil upon us but he tolerates it sometimes,” he said. “God in his omnipotence is good. He always knows the best for us.”

Times of trial and pain give us an opportunity to strengthen our faith, he said. “Also we can hope that not a building but God, his power and his reason, is at the middle of our life.”

Schmitz urged the community to hope and not give up because God doesn’t disappoint.

“If he tolerates disaster to strike he has greater plans to come,” he said.

For Nicole Rasiunas, the Shrine of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, is home.

She and seven of her eight children were there the evening of Oct. 6 for Mass and catechism, and she was planning to return at 8 a.m. Oct. 7 for Mass. But as she prepared to leave the house, she got a text message from a friend alerting her about the fire.

Rasiunas headed to the church joining horrified neighbors and heartbroken parishioners and staff as they watched more than 150 fire personnel pour water on the smoldering church building.

“This is our home,” she said that morning. “It’s the center of our lives.”

“It was beautiful inside,” Rasiunas said. “When you walked in, it was beautiful.”

Still, she said, people looking up from the floor of the church could see old scorch marks near the new roof, and noted that while there was insulation installed, there was no interior ceiling yet.

Rasiunas said she and her family have given much of their time and talent, and some of their treasure as well, toward the restoration of the church. She has made altar cloths and is a member of the volunteer cleaning crew; her husband helped build the confessionals.

“We were just about to start the campaign for the third phase, which would have been to put in new HVAC and all of that,” she said.

Abbe John Ciambrano, an oblate member of the institute, was the first to raise the alarm. Abbe John was visiting overnight while en route from an assignment at St. Mary’s Oratory in Wausau, Wisconsin, to an assignment at the St. Francis de Sales Oratory in St. Louis.

He was the first one up and was having a cup of tea when the smoke alarm went off.

“I thought it was a kitchen appliance or something like that,” he said. Seeing nothing, but smelling smoke, he went outside to see if the smoke was coming in from somewhere else, and saw fire through the church windows. He went back into the priory to raise the alarm and found more smoke on the second floor, where a breezeway connects to the church choir loft and where the regular residents sleep. All eight people who were in the priory made it out.

Seminary candidate McKane Copeland, 18, was among those roused by Abbe John. “I just grabbed my wallet and my keys and ran out,” he said, a blue blanket draped over his shoulders. He stopped in the office to pick up the Rolodex full of contacts, ready to help the institute share the news.

The institute is accepting donations to cover the cost of the fire. See www.gofundme.com/shrinefirefund to donate.