RIDGWAY, Ill. (AP) — A southern Illinois Roman Catholic church destroyed by a February 2012 tornado has reopened after a $6 million rebuilding effort.

The Leap Day twister demolished St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Ridgway nearly four years ago. Only a marble altar and its foundation survived.

WSIL-TV (bit.ly/1Qcnlcg ) reports that the Gallatin County church held a Sunday night Mass to commemorate the renamed St. Kateri Church.

The church is named for St. Kateri Tekawitha, the first North American saint.

The tornados that swept across southern Illinois and demolished the church left eight dead in Harrisburg.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>