Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Chino has been forced to temporarily close its church building after it was discovered that several trusses that support the roof have failed.
“We’re fortunate that there was not a collapse of the roof,” said David Meier, Director of the Diocesan Office of Construction and Real Estate. “It definitely would fall down eventually.”
The failure of the trusses, triangular wood structures that support the roof, was identified early last month by Father Ed Gomez, Pastor, after a support beam below one truss was seen as visibly split. Further investigation determined that several other trusses in the church had failed, Meier said.
The cause could be additional weight put on the trusses by air conditioning ducts or lighting that have been added to the church since it was built in 1950 said Meier, adding that heavy winds and rain could have also created the additional stress on the roof that lead to the truss failure.
At press time, the parish was still awaiting a recommendation from a structural engineer of how to best repair the damage. Meier estimated that the church will be closed for several months. In the meantime, Masses are being held in the parish hall with overflow accommodations in the courtyard outside. Weddings and funerals are being moved to parishes nearby such as St. Paul the Apostle and St. Margaret Mary.
Full story at Inland Catholic Byte.
Vatican II. It is destroying our Church from the inside out. See, this is proof.
Oh wait, the Church was built in 1950. Oops.
No, YFC, that would be the gays trying to destroy the Church from the inside.
Aelred, the Fellow Catholic is right even when he is wrong as usual, at least in one respect perhaps:
The pastor notes “recent heavy winds and rain”, certainly referring to P Frank’s smiling V2 swath of destruction, have finally undone the pre-Vatican 2 integrity of the Church.
Isn’t that prophetically accurate.
Perhaps the congregation could meet at the prison in Chino.
Seems fairly straightforward. A sixty plus year old building, possibly with a roof load a bit heavier than design load, finally had a structural component start to fail.