Hostyn parish marks anniversary of fire with special mass

  • Managing Editor Janet Jones snapped this photo of the remains of the Hostyn church the day of the explosion, in which parishioner Verlene Kuntschik lost her life, helping set up for a mass. The photo placed in the Catholic Media Association’s Spot News Photo Contest for 2022. We thank her for allowing us to use it here.
    Managing Editor Janet Jones snapped this photo of the remains of the Hostyn church the day of the explosion, in which parishioner Verlene Kuntschik lost her life, helping set up for a mass. The photo placed in the Catholic Media Association’s Spot News Photo Contest for 2022. We thank her for allowing us to use it here.

    HOSTYN – Where Queen of the Holy Rosary Church once stood is now a level dirt field like a clean canvas ready for the brush strokes of an inspired artist. The parish has hired an architect and is in the process of finding a contractor to rebuild. On the one-year anniversary of the explosion and fire that destroyed the church, the Rev. Felix Twumasi told the crowd gathered for a memorial Mass that June 9, 2022, “was a bad dream. And I wish it never happened to us.”

    “We did not only lose our church,” he said, “we lost an active and very faithful person. Yes, indeed, the Lord never made a promise that the journey is easy, but he does promise he will be good and faithful to us.”
    Though it was a memorial mass recalling the loss of the church and especially the loss of Verlene Kuntschik, who succumbed to injuries suffered in the fire, it was full of hope and also gratitude for the community that offered everything they could to help with the healing that was needed.

    “So, in the midst of all this, we are marching forward and the ashes, as we know, will be turned into something great and powerful,” Father Felix said.
    As a token of this hope, roses fashioned from pieces of the metal roof that was mangled in the explosion and fire were given to the sons of Verlene – Alan and Aaron – who later placed them on her gravestone in the cemetery on the church grounds.

    “Thank you to the family of Verlene for being with us through all of this,” Father Felix said. “We have never stopped praying for you, because I know that this is very hard.”
    Bishop Brendan Cahill was given a cross fashioned from the ruins as a memento and token of gratitude from the parish. “Ever since we were hit by this tragedy, you have never left us,” Father Felix told him. “You have been a wonderful shepherd.”  
    A similar gift was given to Father Steve Sauser from St. John parish in Fayetteville (Diocese of Austin), not far from Hostyn. He was one of many priests who came to offer help the day of the fire and continued to be a support to the parish. Father Felix called him “our angel.”

    “The day after this incident, we had a meeting here in this room (the parish hall) and we wanted to remain on our grounds here to fight forward,” Father Felix explained. “Father Steve … brought everything that we needed to say Mass on June 10. And consistently he has been with us.”
    The parish fellowship hall has been appropriately arranged and adorned for masses and has served as a makeshift church since the fire. For the parish families, bricks that survived from the church building were stamped with an image of the now-gone church and the family names.
    They were given after the rosary and Mass at the pavilion where a hamburger supper was served at the end of the evening gathering.“My wonderful parishioners here: Ever since this happened, you have not only shared ideas with me, but you have committed to all the ideas you have shared, and that makes a difference,” Father Felix said after mass.

    He said he offered a survey to the parish, so they had a way to share their vision and hope for the building to come, and almost everyone completed the survey. Bishop Cahill, who celebrated the Mass, acknowledged the sufferings of the church and the Kuntschik family but also the healing that comes from letting other people act as the hands and feet of Jesus to accompany those in need.
    He said as he and Father Felix considered readings for the Mass, the reading for the day from the Book of Tobit was as appropriate as any. It showed how Tobit was healed from blindness when his son, whose actions were guided by the Angel Raphael, applied fish gall on his eyes.
    “What they’re trying to say is something deeper and something true,” Bishop Cahill said. “God is always at work even if we don’t realize it and bringing healing on the other side.
    “We bring healing to each other,” he said. “I can’t heal myself. (The reading) reminds us of the need we have for each other.”

    Janet Jones is the managing editor of The Catholic Lighthouse, published by the Diocese of Victoria. It appears here as part of a story share agreement between our publications.