Historic Baltimore County church damaged in fire, prompting investigation
Investigation underway into fire at church in Dundalk that may have been causes by lighting
Investigation underway into fire at church in Dundalk that may have been causes by lighting
A historic church in Baltimore County was damaged in a fire Tuesday, according to fire department officials.
Crews responded to St. Rita's Church in the 2900 block of Dunleer Road in Dundalk around 2:45 p.m. Once on the scene, officials said heavy fire was coming from the building.
The fire was under control by 3:40 p.m., and no injuries were reported, according to Baltimore County Fire Chief Joe Dixon. Though one firefighter was treated on scene for heat exhaustion.
Lightning reported near church fire
The fire at St. Rita's Church caused damage to the steeple of the historic building.
Witnesses told WJZ that the fire may have been caused by lightning; however, Chief Dixon said that could not be confirmed.
"Of course, it could have been a lightning strike, but that is something that we cannot confirm. There is reports of lightning, we've seen lightning in the area, but we would never say that's what it was without an investigation," Dixon said.
St. Rita's Church thanks community
In a social media post, St. Rita's thanked the fire department and the local community for the quick response.
Yonatan Mendoza, a witness who called 911, told WJZ that he saw the fire after leaving the mosque located across the street from the church.
"We are so appreciative of the many thoughts and prayers from our parishioners, the local community, fellow Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the National Shrine of Saint Rita of Cascia, and our neighbors from the Masjid Quba, who also contacted us to alert us to the fire," church leaders said.
St. Rita's was established in 1922, according to the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
The Catholic church was one of several that were part of a consolidation plan in December. The archdiocese's "Seek the City to Come" plan consolidated 61 parishes into 30 worship sites.
St. Rita's Merged with Our Lady of Hope, St. Luke and Sacred Heart of Mary, though the St. Rita's Church building still serves as an additional worship site.
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USA Today
6 hours ago
- USA Today
What to know about Camp Mystic, as death toll from girls' camp reaches 27
At least 27 campers and counselors from an all-girls summer camp in central Texas died in the devastating flash floods that swept through central Texas on July 4, the camp said in a statement on its website. "Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy," read a statement on the Camp Mystic website. "We are praying for them constantly." It's unclear how many of the 27 fatal victims were children. At least 88 people have died in the flooding, according to latest tallies on Monday, July 7. When the flash flood struck early on Friday, about 700 children were in residence at Camp Mystic, according to Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. The camp lies on the banks of the Guadalupe River. Heavy rains hit central-west Texas early Friday, leading to flash flooding in the area around the camp as the river surged nearly 30 feet in less than an hour, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Here's what we know about the summer camp for girls, as crews continue to pick through the wreckage more than three days after the disaster struck. Live updates: 27 girls, counselors at Camp Mystic killed in Texas floods Where is Camp Mystic in Texas? Camp Mystic for Girls is in Texas, about 6 miles south of Hunt, Texas, in Kerr County. That's within Texas Hill Country, an 11-million-acre region of central-west Texas spanning several counties and cities, named for its grassy and rolling hills, and known as an especially flood-prone area. The original camp sits alongside the Guadalupe River, and a second camp nearby opened in 2020 is near Cypress Lake. Both are bisected by Cypress Creek. Texas flood disaster: As death toll hits at least 80, here's ways to help What is Camp Mystic? A centuries-old camp for girls. The nondenominational Christian camp for girls was founded in 1926 by Edward "Doc" Stewart, who was a coach at the University of Texas, according to the camp's website. Except for a short period during during World War II when it served as a "rehabilitation and recovery camp" for veterans, it has been in operation ever since. The camp, described on its website as "nestled among cypress, live oak and pecan trees," operates three sessions each summer, offering classic summer camp activities including archery, canoeing, arts and crafts, swimming and horseback riding. The girls can also participate in cooking, dance, basketball, lacrosse, soccer and yoga, and religious activities such as Bible studies, Saturday evening Catholic Mass and Sunday morning devotionals along the river. "Campers and counselors join together to sing songs, listen to scripture, discover ways to grow spiritually, and learn to apply these lessons to their daily life at camp and back home," according to the site. The camp has a storied history in the state, and has hosted girls from some of Texas' most famous political families. The daughters of three former Texas governors summered at the camp, according to Texas Monthly, and three generations of girls in former President Lyndon B. Johnson's family also attended, the Texas Tribune has reported. A current Republican Congressman announced Saturday two of his daughters were among those evacuated over the weekend, and former First Lady Laura Bush was once a camp counselor there. Jenna Bush Hager speaks about Mystic: 'Texas camps are institutions' One of the former first lady's daughters, Jenna Bush Hager, spoke about her connection to Camp Mystic on NBC's "Today" show on July 7. "My mom was a counselor there, but also so many of my friends were raised at this camp," she said. "Texas camps are institutions, as you just heard, where were many family members − generations − this camp was 100 years old, so grandmothers, mothers, kids have all gone there." Hager said her mother was a drama counselor at the camp, and that many of her friends had their kids at Camp Mystic as recently as last week. "The stories that I heard over the last couple days were beautiful and heartbreaking," she said. "Texas has a type of resilience where they're generous people, where people want to reach out and help." Camp Mystic director died during Texas floods Camp Mystic director Richard "Dick" Eastland is among those who died during the flooding. He and his wife, Tweety, had been running the camps for decades and lived on the property. A former camper and family friend to Eastland, Paige Sumner, wrote about the director in a column in the Kerrville Daily Times published July 5. She said he died while trying to rescue campers. "It doesn't surprise me at all that his last act of kindness and sacrifice was working to save the lives of campers," Sumner wrote. "He had already saved so many lives with the gift of Camp Mystic." Contributing: Christopher Cann and Mike Snider, USA TODAY. Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@ and on X @KathrynPlmr.
Chicago Tribune
10 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Rosary High School in Aurora becomes Rosary College Prep, but it's staying all-girls: ‘We're never going to settle'
When students and employees of Rosary in Aurora welcome new freshmen to the building, they say, 'Welcome to our square,' referencing the shape of their one-story high school building on Edgelawn Drive just off West Indian Trail in Aurora. Just down the street from one of the area's other Catholic high schools, Aurora Central Catholic, Rosary's building was constructed in the 1960s, though it has been expanded and renovated in the decades since: from renovating its auditorium and building a new gymnasium to updating its science classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic. But Rosary's goals and its place in the community have remained steadfast, school leadership says. And that's part of why the school is changing its name — to better reflect what the school already provides, and with the hope of amplifying its reach in the area. As of July 1, Rosary High School is now Rosary College Prep. Along with the name change, the school is getting a new logo, starting a 'house system' that will group the students into six different houses to build school spirit and changing some of its uniform policies, according to Rosary's Head of School Amy McMahon. McMahon, who's been the leader of Rosary since 2020, said the name change is 'more true to (its) identity.' She described the rigor of the classes and curriculum as the distinctions that make it a college preparatory school. 'A lot of reading- and writing-intensive, trying to get them prepared to do well in that, not only maybe in their … junior and senior year here at Rosary, but also … in college and university life,' she said. Rosary was founded by the Dominican Sisters of Springfield in the early 1960s, at the request of former Rockford Bishop Loras Thomas Lane, McMahon said. It joined Marmion Academy, the nearby all-boys school founded in 1933, as a single-sex institution in the area. Rosary has gone through changes and expansion since its founding, but has remained an all-girls, Catholic school sponsored by the Dominican Sisters of Springfield. The name change came out of the school's five-year strategic plan, according to Rosary. The school partnered with Leapfrog Marketing in 2024 to work on the school's brand, with the goals of differentiating Rosary in the education landscape, creating messaging that's clear and concise, increasing awareness of Rosary and improving perception of the school and demonstrating the school's value and assisting with enrollment growth, according to a news release from the school about the name change. Rosary initially launched the rebranding to the school community in January, McMahon said. 'We want everybody to know about Rosary, and that a Rosary education is something that all girls in this area, in the greater Chicagoland area, should have the chance (to have) if they would like to,' McMahon said. Student input about the school's future was one part of the rebranding process, McMahon said. The uniform change, for example, was guided by student feedback. Previously, Rosary had two different uniforms for underclassmen and upperclassmen. Now, students will all wear the same kilt, but underclassmen and upperclassmen will wear shirts in different shades of blue. 'The girls really wanted that differentiation,' McMahon said. 'I think it's really important for the girls to have a voice and feel like they're making decisions and helping with the process.' This change for Rosary is coming at a time of broader change for Catholic education in the area, too. In the fall of 2026, Marmion Academy, the area's all-boys school, will become a coeducational school. That will leave Rosary the only single-sex school in the area — and the only one in the Rockford Diocese, according to Kim White, the diocese's director of educational services and superintendent of schools. That's part of the school's 'unique role' in the region, per Rosary's news release, though McMahon noted that Rosary's rebranding plans started before Marmion announced it was going co-ed. Currently, Rosary is already one of only two independent schools within the diocese, the other being Marmion, White said. This means the schools are funded and governed independently from the diocese, which runs high schools of its own, such as Aurora Central Catholic. Many of the other areas in the Rockford Diocese — which includes Kane, DeKalb, McHenry, Boone, Carroll, JoDaviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago counties, per its website — don't have the population to support multiple Catholic high schools, White said, though she considers the single-sex schools to be 'a beautiful tradition.' The nearby Diocese of Joliet has eight high schools of its own, all co-ed, according to Mercy Robb, the diocese's director of Catholic school marketing and enrollment management. Marmion Academy made the decision to go co-ed this past November, said Abbot Joel Rippinger of Marmion Abbey. He said the school's facilities can accommodate up to 550 students, but its enrollment has been coming in at around 410. 'Both for material, financial reasons, but especially for a look at our mission and where we want to be, we think the time is now for this to take place,' Rippinger told The Beacon-News. He said the school is no stranger to changes, having over the years switched its focus from serving as a military academy, and closing its residential program around two decades ago. 'I think, in retrospect, they proved to be the right decisions,' Rippinger said. 'We hope that we are on the same track with the co-ed.' These changes at area schools are unfolding amid a decline in enrollment in Catholic schools nationwide over the past few decades, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. For example, enrollment in Catholic secondary schools in the United States was at just over one million students around the late 1960s and early 1970s, according to NCES data. For the 2022-23 school year, it was just under half of that. The number of Catholic schools themselves has also gone down over the years, with the number of Catholic secondary schools in the U.S. in 2022-23 at about half the number it had at its peak, per the National Center for Education Statistics. Private school enrollment overall increased slightly between 2011 and 2021, though Catholic school enrollment fell slightly across that time period. Public school enrollment, on the other hand, decreased slightly nationwide across a similar time period, per NCES figures. In Illinois, public school enrollment decreased by 11% from 2012 to 2022, according to NCES data, one of the sharpest drops in the country. But, in 2021, the state's private school enrollment hovered around the national average of 9% of students. Rosary intends for the name to, in part, 'serve to quell occasional rumors that the school will close or merge with another school,' according to documents about the name change from Rosary provided to the school community. McMahon noted declining birth rates, for example, as a broader trend affecting educational institutions' enrollment overall. But she said Rosary believes single-sex education continues to offer something unique. 'There's really nothing like it,' she said. 'The girls are the ones that are front and center here. They get all the funds, whether it's fine arts or athletics or academics, the leadership positions.' And she said they have no plans for changing that focus. 'I feel like it's so important, specifically in this day and age with what's going on in the world, that they have this safe space, this second place that they can call home,' McMahon said. Those benefits extend beyond Rosary's walls, school leadership has said. '(Something) I hear from alums all the time is that, when they get to college, they sit up front, they raise their hand, they ask pertinent questions,' said Vicki Danklefsen, Rosary's director of philanthropy and alumnae, saying that being in a smaller community of all girls helps build students' confidence and relieves some of the pressure that a larger school might bring. Rosary's enrollment sits at about 215 students, McMahon said. But its student population extends beyond the immediate area, Danklefsen noted. 'We are the only single-sex school for miles and miles,' Danklefsen said, noting that students come from west of Aurora, from DeKalb, even Homer Glen. 'They wanted what we offer without going into Chicago.' McMahon said recruitment is always a goal for Rosary, but that, in addition to reflecting its academic goals, it hopes the new branding will also serve as a recruitment strategy going forward. 'We want to cast a wider net,' McMahon said. White, too, noted efforts going on in the diocese meant to boost enrollment — for example, adding liberal arts or performing arts tracks at diocesan schools, and raising money for tuition assistance to help children in underserved communities attend Catholic schools. Rosary's name change was made official on July 1, in time for school to start on Aug. 18 for freshmen and Aug. 19 for all other students. Incoming seniors this year will still receive diplomas that read 'Rosary High School.' Now, as Rosary gears up for another school year, a few things will look different when students return to classes, like their school's logo and their uniforms. Some of the impact Marmion's going co-ed will have on Rosary remains to be seen — on enrollment, as well as on the schools' joint band program and relationship between the two institutions for their theater productions. Rippinger said that, after next year, Marmion won't be taking Rosary students for its band, but said the theater program is yet to be decided on. McMahon said Rosary intends to start its own band in the future. It may open up its theater program to all male students in the area after Marmion switches to co-ed, and is considering expanding to offer both a musical and a play during the school year. In terms of other changes, Rosary has an engineering program in the works that is set to be offered starting in the fall of 2026, McMahon said, along with a law class. But the school plans to retain its overall missions and traditions, even as it continues to evolve. 'We're never going to settle,' McMahon said. 'And I think that's important for the girls to also know and understand, like, it's great that you can accomplish your goal, but you should never settle. You should keep pushing yourselves. … Like doing what was right for Rosary, which was committing to our single-sex education, being true to our Catholic, Dominican identity and especially our place in Aurora.'
Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Former Aurora Central principal now back in area as pastor in Sugar Grove
After serving more than two decades as a priest of the Rockford Diocese in his hometown of Aurora, the Rev. William Etheredge did not have a lot of experience with packing up and moving. Unlike most Catholic priests who tend to be relocated every six to 12 years by the bishop, he was comfortably situated in his role as principal of Aurora Central Catholic High School and superintendent of the Catholic schools here. And as he crept closer to age 70, he'd hoped to ease into retirement there. But God — and/or the bishop – had other plans. In the past three years, Etheredge has certainly been on the move, relocating from Aurora in July of 2022 to St. Mary Catholic Church in Sycamore, and now, the popular priest has been transferred again, this time back home. Or at least, darn close to home. On June 18, after only a few years at St. Mary, Etheredge officially became the new pastor of St. Katharine Drexel Catholic Church in Sugar Grove. That's no doubt great news for hundreds if not thousands of his fans who were as much devastated as disappointed when Bishop David Malloy, who Etheredge has known since their seminary days, moved him from Aurora Central Catholic, which had thrived under his leadership. The announcement led to a whole lot of tears, not to mention hundreds of names on petitions to the diocese asking that the popular priest be left in Aurora. Etheredge was disappointed, too. But he also was well aware of the Catholic priest shortage, and moved from his hometown to Sycamore with a great attitude and that seemingly ever-present smile on his face. That move came out of the blue, he told me back in June of 2022 when we sat down to talk about his exodus from ACC. And so also has this most recent relocation, which follows the retirement of St. Katharine Drexel Pastor Stephen St. Jules, who arrived in Sugar Grove four years ago. Yes, 'I was very surprised,' admitted Etheredge, noting with a laugh that, 'in the past three years I've been in three places. Before that, in 40 years, I was in three places.' I have no doubt the members of St. Mary Parish loved him as much as any of us who know Father Etheredge or ever listened to one of his sermons or Gospel readings — which usually are recited by heart as he steps down off the altar and walks close to the congregation. The humble, affable priest – frequently described as 'one of a kind' – certainly developed close relationships in his few years with this DeKalb County parish. Still, Etheredge is looking at this latest move as a 'real blessing.' For one thing, when St. Katharine Drexel was founded in October of 2008 – the first new parish in the Rockford Diocese since 1989 and largely due to a major gift from the Anthony Rich family which owns the prestigious Rich Harvest Farms golf course – Etheredge was part of those early efforts, including moving tables and chairs to set up for Mass in the gymnasium of John Shields Elementary School to the eventual groundbreaking. 'It really does feel like I'm coming home,' he said, noting there are still 'many families I know' at St. Katharine's, including those who had or have children at ACC. 'I certainly feel very welcomed back.' Of course, he quickly noted, the moves are 'not getting any easier. 'I'm still in boxes but have found the essentials,' said Etheredge when I caught up with him last week. 'I'm meeting with people here; with staff and volunteers. I'm learning about the nuts and bolts …' Still, he misses education and working with young people, one reason he was thrilled St. Mary Parish included an elementary school. But this move brings him closer to his beloved ACC, making it 'much easier,' he acknowledged, to get to sporting events, plays and other high school activities. 'It is hard to leave where I was,' he said. 'But it also is so good to be back in the area.'
