Fire captain makes way through ruins of incinerated church to find tabernacle intact

LOS ANGELES (OSV News) -- Four days after Corpus Christi Church was incinerated in the Palisades Fire, Capt. Bryan Nassour of the Los Angeles Fire Department picked his way over a 6-foot layer of rubble in the ashen bones of the sanctuary and recovered the tabernacle Jan. 11.

"I did it because the whole community has been decimated -- it looks like a nuclear bomb has gone off and nothing is standing," Nassour told Angelus, the news outlet of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Nassour is a member of St. Francis de Sales Church in Sherman Oaks, and his brother belongs to Corpus Christi.

"My brother lost his home. I have close friends who lost everything but the shirts on their backs, and they belong to that church too. So, if I could save just one thing, let it be this, so they have something to believe in," he said.

That Saturday morning Nassour, whose station in Pacific Palisades is across the street from Corpus Christi, had been up all night battling other fires. As he sipped coffee at his desk and gazed at the ruined church, he decided to check for valuables. He wanted to protect them from looters and perhaps return something meaningful to the parish.

Scorched bricks, tiles and hunks of debris filled the nave so high that he had to crawl under the top of door frames that no longer had doors. The roof had collapsed, a burned steel frame teetered above the twisted remains of a chandelier. The pews had been consumed. Only the granite altar remained, with the solid brass tabernacle atop it and a cross above. The Blessed Sacrament was intact.

Nassour was astounded to find that the tabernacle weighed more than 300 lbs. His crew helped him get it into the station house.

"It was one of the most uplifting things," he said. "Not everyone is religious, but they saw that and they're like, 'This is awesome.' We're doing something -- at least one thing -- that we can salvage for the community."

He made many calls before he was able to reach Msgr. Liam Kidney of Corpus Christi to tell him that the tabernacle was safe and undamaged.

"He was in utter disbelief," Nassour said.

Nassour offered to search for other sacred objects and the priest told him where to find the chalices and patens. Firefighters from Station 69 helped dig for the crushed cabinet. The chalices and patens had been severely damaged. But the firefighters recovered other sacred objects, including three unbroken containers of holy oil.

Brass withstands high heat, but Nassour suspects more was involved in the tabernacle's survival.

"Talk to any firefighter. In any religious building what usually survives is the cross and certain specific items that are highly religious, unless they've been specifically set on fire," he said.

Gabe Sanchez, a retired FBI special agent who does contract investigations for the Los Angeles Archdiocese, was sent to retrieve the tabernacle. Firefighters helped him wrestle it into his car. He drove it to St. Monica Church, where Msgr. Kidney celebrated Mass for survivors the next day.

At that Mass, the tabernacle stood on a table by the altar. Msgr. Kidney recounted Nassour calling him to ask, "I have found this big gold box. What would you like me to do with it?"
The Corpus Christi parishioners burst into applause.

Nassour was unable to attend because he was fighting fires.