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LEICESTER, United Kingdom – A fire greatly damaged an Anglican church in the English city of Leicester on July 28. One thing the congregation wasn’t expecting was a message from the Vatican. The letter sent to the Rev. Johannes Arens, the parish priest of Saint Andrew’s Parish in Leicester said Pope Leo XIV “was saddened” by news of the fire and “he sends the assurance his spiritual solidarity to all those affected.” “With hope that services can return to the church as soon as possible, His Holiness prays that the response to this disastrous event will strengthen the community and bring about a renewal in the life of the parish,” said the letter from Archbishop Paolo Rudelli, the Substitute for General Affairs for the Secretariat of State of the Holy See. St Andrew’s Church in Leicester, England, before it was damaged by a fire in July 2026. (Credit: Rev. Johannes Arens.) St Andrew’s Church was built in the 1860s in the center of the city and is seen as an Anglo-Catholic parish. “This is a very vibrant parish life then. It is. It’s a pretty young congregation,” Arens told Crux Now. The priest said the letter came about because he has a friend that works in the Dicastery for Christian Unity. “We chatted a bit and he said, ‘If there’s anything I can do, let me know,’ as people usually say and rightly say,” he explained. (To view letter from the Vatican, click on link: Pope to Leicester) “And I thought about it. Okay, actually, there’s something you could do, because what I think this fairly marginalized community, in terms of status or money, could do: Is to be seen. And who is better to see us than the Pope? So, I said, ‘Could you land something on his desk? And he said, ‘Well, I don’t know. I’ll see what I can do.’ And then two or three days later, he messaged me,” Arens continued. What follows is the priest’s conversation with Crux Now, edited for length and clarity. Crux Now: Can you tell us a little bit about the fire and what happened to your church? Arens: Well, there are questions which probably never get answered. The fire is now two weeks ago, Tuesday night. I live next door, and the fire brigade banged on my door in a way that I fell out of bed at a quarter-past-eleven. And they banged on your door. I think there’s still a dent in the door! And so, I came down in my T-shirt, and they said: “The church is on fire. Have you got keys? Can you open the west door?” So, I managed to open up two doors from the side, where I live. And the fire brigade had to go in with less-than-normal ways into other doors, because when they need to get in. The fire started in what is known as the server vestry, which is a small room next to the sanctuary. And the important conclusion is, it certainly wasn’t foul play. It was not arson. Nobody wants us any harm. That’s really important. And it was also not something utterly stupid. We will never know for sure. But it might have been an electrical short circuit. Once it was in the roof, that was it. The roof is made out of timber and slate. And the timber has been there for 160 years. It’s dry. The fire was trapped under the roof. So, you have an amount of heat and smoke, and the fire spread all through the nave. Bizarrely, some things on the ground are relatively undamaged, because the heat was in the top of the building. So, the roof has burnt and needs to be taken down. The walls are solid, which is extraordinary. Yeah, they knew how to build in 1862. The paint and things like that has burned off the walls because of the heat in the building. Extraordinarily, I had a coffin in church for a big funeral the coming day…And that coffin got out completely undamaged, which I was really, really worried about. The funeral then went ahead the following day, but not in church, but at the cemetery. How have the parishioners dealt with this? I mean, emotionally, and also, where are they saying Mass now? Obviously, everybody was shocked. So, there was a bunch of students who come to church sitting on the other side of the church, because there’s student accommodation, and that’s where some of them live. And they were sort of up all night, fairly distressed, messaging me, are you safe? And I couldn’t get to them, because I couldn’t get through the barriers. The publican opened up and gave them some chocolate bars and water. There’s been huge interest in the local community, because the church has been here for such a long time. And it’s tied up with family memories and significant moments in people’s lives. It’s also a fairly big, regular congregation; so, the congregation was obviously in shock and trying to find out what happened. This is a daily Mass parish. So, mass stopped for two days and has moved to the community hall next door. And so, on Saturday, the daily Mass started again, first outside in the garden, and then about 80 people turned up on Saturday morning. Saint Andrew’s Parish in Leicester, England, after it was damaged by a fire on July 28, 2026. (Credit: Rev. Johannes Arens.) And we really tried to clean everything we could in the community hall and in the office, not in the church itself. The church itself is not safe. But there was, of course, enormous amount of water damage and soot and dirt and ash. So, it wasn’t a fun job. But people turned up with buckets and mops, and also with drinks and pastries. And if I say party, it’s too much. But people were looking after each other and after themselves. So, services are back. We added some services in order to make room because we’re too many. We don’t fit all into the parish, into the community hall. But services have resumed. And since last week, the mood is shifting towards, yeah, this is going to be a marathon, but we can do this. So, this is going to take five years or so, depending. It’s a listed building. You can’t just do things to it. There’s processes for everything. And we are insured. That’s not going to pay for everything and it’s not a magic wand, but things will happen. And it’s going to take a while and it’s going to be difficult. But yeah, we are going to rebuild. You mentioned the numbers of people there. This is a very vibrant parish life then. It is. It’s a pretty young congregation. In Roman Catholic terms, it’s not that big, but it’s 150 on a Sunday, sort of. So, it’s full. The church doesn’t hold any more people. It’s full and we need extra chairs. People around here are mostly students, asylum seekers, what is known affectionately as key workers, often recent immigrants. So, it’s a very mixed group of people who have very little in common apart from coming to church, which is why it’s an opportunity to get to know people who are totally different from oneself. Old, young, black, brown, white, rich, poor. It’s one of the few spaces where you meet people who are really different because we all live in bubbles. It’s also a community where nobody seems to take much interest in. So, your next question will be, how did this happen with the Holy Father? Well, yes, you got a message from the Holy Father. What was that like? Well, yeah, exactly. So, I got loads of messages, not just from other churches and colleagues and friends and neighbors. Interestingly, on the Saturday morning when we did all the cleaning, quite a few people turned up who never come to church, but who care about the community and their neighborhood. That was really heartening, really touching. But going back to messages, so I found it very heartening that not just churches got in touch, but also the local imam and the Hare Krishna Temple and the Jain Centre. Other religious communities said, we have your back, we’re on your side, we care and we support you. That was really heartening. The way this letter came about is, I have a friend who works in the Dicastery for Christian Unity and works for Cardinal Kurt Koch, and he got in touch a day or so after the fire and said, “How are you? Are you okay? Is everything is all right?” And so, we chatted a bit and he said, “If there’s anything I can do, let me know,” as people usually say and rightly say. Saint Andrew’s Parish in Leicester, England, after it was damaged by a fire on July 28, 2026. (Credit: Rev. Johannes Arens.) And I thought about it: Okay, actually, there’s something you could do, because what I think this fairly marginalized community, in terms of status or money, could do is to be seen. And who is better to see us than the Pope? So, I said, “Could you land something on his desk?” And he said, “Well, I don’t know, I’ll see what I can do.” And then two or three days later, he messaged me, “I’ve ran by the cardinal and he’s talked to the Secretariat, the rest is up in the air, we’ll see what happens.” So on Friday night, the letter arrived, which I’m very, very chuffed about, because it means, it gives a real boost to people to know: We are seen. We are not alone. We have friends. We are noticed in this situation. Finally, you spoke about how other religious leaders, not just Christians, notified you. I’ve lived in Leicester for 10 years. It’s one of the most multi-religious cities in Europe, let alone in England. Can you tell us a little bit about what it’s like being a pastor in such a diverse community? I have been in Leicester for 15 years. And the reason I first came here, originally to Leicester Cathedral, because that was my job for 10 years, was that I was quite fascinated by: How does that work in a city? It’s not all roses and joy in Leicester, but there are many people in Leicester who have lived somewhere else in their lives, and who know what it is to feel foreign and strange, and not quite in the thick of it, and not quite at home. Home is a fleeting concept for many people here in Leicester. And that unifies: to feel strange and foreign, and to lose, for example, your sense of humor, because it works differently in a different language. Or to use your eloquence, because in a further language, you’re not as witty in a further language. And a lot of people bring a background of conflict where they’ve come from, and genuinely want to build a better community in Leicester, and try hard. That’s not always the case here. There’s conflict and trouble and issues, but there are people, I meet so many people from completely different backgrounds who often speak several languages, who often say, yeah, I lived in, whatever, I lived in Holland, or I lived in Italy, or I lived in Germany for a bit. And somehow that creates common ground, even if I don’t know the area too well where they lived, or if my Italian is not really good, or actually abysmal, but we have something then where we can talk a bit. So being a priest in Leicester exposes you to, again, to people who are really different, and also makes my own foreigner status, well, it makes it relative. I’m white, I’m male, I’m European, I speak English reasonably well, with an accent, but I speak English. Lots of people who come here who are new, whose English is quite a bit more fragile. I fell in love with Leicester; otherwise, I wouldn’t have stayed for that long. Did you have anything else you wanted to add? We are going to rebuild this place because we are more than a building. It’s a community which is fragile; which is mostly economically poor; over half of it is not British by origin. But we have in some ways very little in common, and in other ways very much in common, and we care about each other. And so we will get through this. This article has been corrected over the average number of parishioners. Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome

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