BARRINGTON, R.I. (WJAR) — The smell of smoke still lingered inside St. Luke’s Catholic Church on Sunday morning, but parishioners filled the pews for Mass just days after an accidental fire damaged part of the building.
“It’s a blessing that hurts, but it’s a blessing,” Father Marcel Taillon, the church’s pastor, said of the congregation’s return.
The fire began early Tuesday in the church vestibule, according to the State Fire Marshal’s Office. They say it was caused by improperly discarded incense ashes in a mulch bed and was ruled accidental. Firefighters contained the blaze, but smoke and soot spread through the church, leaving a substantial cleanup effort behind…