Fire damages St. Pius X Mission Church in Crown Point

A fire apparently caused by an electrical malfunction badly damaged about one-fourth of St. Pius X Mission Church in Crown Point on Monday afternoon, Father Luke Nguyen said today.

“It's not a complete loss, but it's unusable right now,” said Father Nguyen, pastor of St. Pius X Mission and its mother parish, St. Anthony in Lafitte. Father Nguyen estimated that one-fourth of the mission church was affected, including the ceiling.

Father Nguyen said the fire broke out around 4:30 p.m. on Monday. A couple visiting the adjacent St. Pius X cemetery and mausoleum reported seeing smoke coming out of the back of the church and called 911, and firefighters arrived quickly.

“They said if they had come later, the whole church would have been burned,” Father Nguyen said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but fire marshalls believe it was an electrical issue, Father Nguyen said.

There are no estimates on the cost of repairs. The church is insured for fire damage.

“We want to rebuild our church,” Father Nguyen said. “I need help from any churches that can help. The people were devastated because we just celebrated Easter Mass on Sunday, and it was a crowded church.”

This was the second major calamity in the last years to befall the St. Anthony and St. Pius X communities. Hurricane Ida flooded St. Anthony Church in Lafitte, and while the church has been gutted and some interior work has been done, the parish is awaiting insurance claims to completely renovate the mostly bare church.

As a result of the flood damage in Lafitte, most parish weddings have been celebrated in St. Pius X Church, which was not flooded in Ida.

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