By Michael Motes

Mass was celebrated as usual at Sacred Heart Church in downtown Atlanta one week after the historic building suffered an estimated quarter of a million dollars worth of damage at the hands of arsonists.

During the early morning hours of Sunday, June 4, a firebomb thrown through a window of the downstairs area of the Church ignited the blaze. It was the feast day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, patron of the 1898 Church, second oldest Catholic Church in the city.

The fire was the latest in a series of harassing events suffered by Father Morris and his associates, including the slashing of their automobile tires on several occasions. The morning of the fire, the tires on all four cars belonging to the priests at Sacred Heart were again slashed.

Father Morris first reported incidents at the Church to the Atlanta Police Department last April. He charged that the department had been "sorely lacking" in investigating the incidents.

The police "lack either the will or the ability" to prevent such destruction, Father Morris said.

Sacred Heart had recently completed a year-long renovation program which included repainting and repapering the entire upstairs of the building, which suffered smoke and heat damage but was able to be used for services a week after the blaze.

Father Morris is not able to estimate when repair work on the gutted downstairs of his Church will begin.

"We are already well into dealing with the many problems the fire has caused," he wrote in a letter to all of his parishioners following the destruction. "Meetings are scheduled with the parish council, the finance committee, our architects, insurance adjusters, etc. We need to get a clear idea of where we stand at the moment."

Although the damage was severe, Father Morris stated that Sacred Heart is "excellently insured" and that he does not anticipate any financial problems. In the renovation work, special contributions from many of his 3,000 parishioners are being deposited in an "Arson Fund."

"We certainly never anticipated the necessity for 'The Arson Fund,' but in response to offers, we have set up such a fund to receive special gifts," Father Morris said.

While the insurance will cover most of the direct losses, the pastor said that there will be "some attendant expenses which could amount to $40,000 or $50,000."

Father Morris credits "some local people who the Church had helped out with emergency clothing and food" with notifying the sleeping priests the morning of the fire.

"They came and banged on the door and rang the doorbell and alerted the priest on duty," Father Morris said.

The blaze was first reported to the Atlanta Fire Bureau at 3:33 a.m. and was declared under control at 4:40. Four fire companies responded to the call. It was estimated that if the blaze had been discovered "four or five minutes later," the entire church would have been a loss.

Father Morris said that he was "sick and puzzled" but not especially surprised by the fire. He stated that he felt the person responsible for the destruction, believed to be related to the vandalism at several other Atlanta churches, "should seek help."

"I always felt that if we had a fire here, it would be in the old Marist building next door," he said. The building has been vacant for several years, but funds have not been available to have the structure razed.

Captain Floyd Stonecypher, acting Fire Marshal of the City of Atlanta, stated that his department is "fully pursuing" the fire and that the crime lab is in the process of examining samples of the debris from the basement area to determine what chemicals were used to start the fire.

Captain Stonecypher said that the firebomb spread throughout the centrally-damaged area of the church "within minutes" and the effect was that "of a flash fire."