Each morning, Scott Reilly would pray a specific prayer as the sun beamed through the windows at the home he shared with several of his fellow priests and missionaries in Forsyth County. The sunshine helped illuminate the rectory’s chapel, full of golden wooden trim that accentuated a marble white altar.
Now, the remnants of that pristine altar are littered across the ground, and the walls and trim are either gone or covered in black ash.
As the sun was nearing the horizon Feb. 16, a lightning bolt struck the roof during severe storms that hit metro Atlanta, causing the home of the Legionaries of Christ’s community to be engulfed in flames, officials said. About a dozen Catholic priests had lived in the home for roughly six years.
Credit: Fr. Scott Reilly
Credit: Fr. Scott Reilly
Reilly, who lived in one of the other two buildings on the property about 50 yards from the main house, said he was awakened at about 4:45 a.m. by a flash of lightning and the immediate roar of thunder.
At first, he believed a bolt hit a nearby tree as the smell of smoke came pouring into his bedroom. He then saw a warm glow piercing through the curtains and immediately put on his slippers and rushed outside.
The main house’s entire roof was on fire.
Credit: Fr. Scott Reilly
Credit: Fr. Scott Reilly
Although most of the priests were out of town working, Reilly immediately knew that father Edward Mcilmail was still inside, so he rushed in.
The priests each had their own room, with important mementos including books and Bibles. Reilly said he felt overwhelmed and fearful as he was met by flames and smoke that were slowly creeping down from the attic. He considers many of the clergymen there his friends and family.
“You’re scared because you can’t stop this,” he said.
Credit: Fr. Scott Reilly
Credit: Fr. Scott Reilly
After navigating the smoke, he was relieved to find Mcilmail in the dining room speaking with a dispatcher who advised the priest to evacuate and leave everything behind. The Forsyth County fire trucks arrived soon after, and no one was injured in the blaze.
The two priests then found themselves sitting outside in the storm as they watched crews attempt to save their massive home.
But it was too late.
The pair then gazed at a brightly lit home across the street and started walking toward it. A few years earlier, during another set of storms, neighbor Nina Moynihan said a large tree had fallen across Woodsong Road, where they all lived. After the hunk of wood was removed by the power company, she said she saw some of the priests in both yards picking up branches and using chainsaws to cut up the remaining limbs. She never forgot.
So when Moynihan went to her front door this month, there stood Reilly, Mcilmail and another priest, all soaked. With another wave of storms set to arrive soon, she quickly let them in and handed them towels with which to dry off.
Typically, priests live a simple life and have few changes of clothes. Mcilmail, who was still in his pajamas, was given a fresh pair of Adidas soccer pants.
“I’m not sure it is the chosen attire of Catholic priests, but that is what my house, of three boys, has a lot of in a variety of sizes,” Moynihan joked.
After her 10-year-old son cooked the priests pancakes, she sent a text to the neighborhood asking for more clothes in Mcilmail’s size. About 10 minutes later, two people showed up at her door with their arms full of things for him to wear.
Credit: Fr. Scott Reilly
Credit: Fr. Scott Reilly
During the commotion, father Matthew Kaderabek was 500 miles away in Florida. Kaderabek, who lives in the garage near the home, was in Orlando for an annual trip with the band for Pinecrest Academy, where he serves as a chaplain.
Upon hearing the news, he said he cried during the trip home, a roughly 10-hour drive that felt even longer. While on the bus, he asked the students for their prayers, and they were “very supportive,” he said. By the time he got back to Cumming, their parents, having already heard the bad news, gave him hugs and offered to donate. A few hours later, Kaderabek walked around the fenced-off home that was “nothing more than a pile of ashes and rubble,” he said.
He cried again.
“It’s brutal,” Kaderabek said, adding that he received more than 100 texts within a day of the fire. “It’s hard to describe the feeling of loss when you see that, and you just know it’s all gone. There was nothing salvageable. There was a total burn to the ground.”
Kaderabek expects that they will rebuild, especially following such an outpouring of support, saying, “We’re not going anywhere.” As of Monday afternoon, a GoFundMe page had raised more than $112,000 to help the priests, who are now living at a few homes within 15 minutes of their destroyed rectory.
They have continued to serve in the aftermath of the fire, including at St. Brendan the Navigator, Pinecrest and throughout the metro Atlanta area, because “the mission must go on,” Kaderabek said.
Has the upheaval changed his prayers?
“Quite frankly, it’s hard not to be distracted by having lost your stability, so it’s harder to focus in prayer,” he said, “but I and all my companions are making that effort.”
Credit: Legionaries of Christ
Credit: Legionaries of Christ
The change in circumstances also hasn’t altered Reilly’s morning prayers, outside of a few cloudy days immediately after the blaze.
After he wakes up at his temporary home along Croftshire Place, Reilly slowly walks down the stairs to the family room, reaches for the blinds and makes sure to catch a glimpse of the sunrise.
The beautiful chapel might be gone, but the message has always been more important.
“It lightens up, you know,” Reilly said. “It doesn’t have the woods as the other place, but you have the sky. And they are grateful prayers.”
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