No One Injured In Church Wall Collapse

By John Severance

LEMITAR – A day later, general contractor Dewey Christenson still was shook.
Christenson and his crew had been working on restoring the La Sagrada Familia, a Catholic church in Lemitar.
But at 12:35 Tuesday afternoon, the wall, all of the sudden, collapsed.
“It was horrifying,” Christenson said. “I am sure God protected us by bringing it down without anybody in there.”
Christenson and his crew had installed some scaffolding inside the church in the morning and decided to take a lunch break.
When they returned from lunch, the wall came down.
“I was going to send two of my guys underneath the floor to help shore up the structure by putting in some blocks,” Christenson said early Wednesday morning. “It just went. We wanted to shore up the structure and then bring the wall down.”
“Praise God, it’s near miraculous nobody got hurt,” said Father Andy Pavlak, the pastor of San Miguel Parish that includes missions in Lemitar, Alamillo, Kelly, Luis Lopez, San Antonio, Magdalena, Polvadera, Riley and Socorro.
“This is truly a sad day for the Roman Catholic Church in Socorro County. We have been working diligently to preserve the history and integrity of this church and unfortunately, time, wear and the elements have taken too great a toll on this historic and holy place.
On Wednesday, Christenson said he was waiting on an adobe specialist and structural engineer.
“I am not qualified to say if it is fixable,” Christenson said.
La Sagrada Familia is 179 years old.
“The wall is made of adobe plaster and a lot of churches made back then have this problem,” Christenson said. “The water whicks up into the adobe and deteriorates it. We have lost several churches around the state with the same problem. “This is an incredible wakeup call,” Pavlak added. “We will be inspecting all the churches. All of them have been plastered with cement plaster including this one (San Miguel Church in Socorro).”
Pavlak said walls collapsed at a church in Questa recently.
“The water gets trapped between the cement and the adobe,” Pavlak said. “You noticed that there was a lot of powder where the wall collapsed. Dewey put his hand behind the plaster and there was nothing.”
Pavlak and Christenson had gotten a go-ahead from a structural engineer Tuesday night to go into the choir loft area inside the church.
Early Wednesday morning, two angels, 10 statues, some pews, an organ, and old confessional and nine of 14 stations were recovered from the church.
The church had been closed since last fall when plaster started falling from the ceiling and the floors began to buckle.
Pavlak said he has been conducting mass once a month in Lemitar at the home of Lorella and Bill Chavez, who are the majordomos (or caretakers) of the church. The Chavezes live across the street from the church.
The pastor also said he has heard from Beau Braswell, who put the last roof in at the church and they talked about ways to take the pressure off the remaining three walls.
“I am hoping we can take the pressure off the walls, but we also don’t want to destabilize it,”
Pavlak is fearful that some strong gusts of wind could bring the whole church down.
On Tuesday night, Pavlak held a mass and he cited Gospel Mathew 16:3-19, which is about the feast of Saint Peter and Paul. About halfway through the passage, there is this quote, “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.”
“I’m glad God has a sense of humor,” Pavlak said. “How ironic. Or is that a message?
According to a history book about the San Miguel Churches, Sagrada Familia Mission was built in 1831 and the land was donated by Juan Platero. The building has a resemblance to San Miguel in Socorro. And according to the book, Don Pablo Sanchez and his wife are buried underneath the present Altar. They were a prominent family in the Catholic Community. In front of the church are buried other notables of the town who were bearers of responsibility known for their work in the church.
One Lemitar resident probably summed it up best Wednesday morning when she said, “It’s a sad day for Lemitar.”

Photos by John Severance

No One Injured In Church Wall Collapse