update on the church fire

Teens arrested in church fire to stay in jail

Damages from an afternoon arson fire set inside St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church last week likely will exceed $1 million, a church spokeswoman said, but parishioners of the Kendall church intend to celebrate Holy Week at the site and then rebuild.

Miami-Dade Police have arrested two teenage boys over the blaze, and, at hearings Tuesday and Wednesday, both youths were ordered to be detained at the Miami juvenile lockup for 21 days. The boys, who are not being named because they are juveniles, both have been charged with first-degree arson, police say.

Susan Spruce, a lawyer with the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office, declined to discuss the case on behalf of one of the boys, whom the office represents.

Both boys, aged 14 and 15, live near the church, but parishioners of St. Catherine say they do not worship there, said Mary Ross Agosta, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Miami.

''We just got off the phone with the building inspectors; it's badly damaged,'' Ross Agosta said.

''There's a lot of sorrow here, certainly within the church and the community,'' she said. ``But we can't lose sight that these are kids who are 14 and 15 years old.''

Ross Agosta said no services will be canceled, and church leaders likely will celebrate Easter Sunday either in areas inside the church not affected by the blaze, or outside in a plaza.

''We will be rejoicing on Easter Sunday at St. Catherine of Siena,'' she said.

The Miami-Dade Police Department's arson unit is investigating the fire. Police say a surveillance video inside the church showed two youths enter. As they left, ''a fire ignited inside,'' according to a prepared statement.

Police investigators have not said yet why the boys would have set the blaze, said Roy Rutland, a police spokesman.

Friday's fire started in a small chapel at the church at Southwest 107th Avenue and 93rd Street.

A church parishioner driving past the building saw smoke and called 911. Firefighters were able to contain the blaze before it spread to the whole building.

No one was injured in the fire, which came just before Holy Week, the most important week on the Catholic calender, which runs from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday.

''That something so profound would occur just before Palm Sunday leads into Holy Week brings into focus what this week is all about,'' Ross Agosta said. ``The parishioners of St. Catherine will move forward; they know they will be able to rebuild the building.

''It brings to mind what Christ taught us about forgiveness,'' she added. ``It reminds us that you don't need a building to be a parish.''

Interesting how they said that their names are not being released but their names and pics were plastered all over the news today. two little thug wanna-be's. if that were my son, i'd be him silly, he'd be begging for God himself to come down and save him. One of the kids grandma goes to that church, not anymore though i'm sure. i think they should be put to work on the restoration of the church, that'll be a good lesson for them. but then again, idk if the archdiocese would trust them, i wouldn't.