The Holy Cross and Blessed Sacrament parishes in Olyphant and Throop consolidated into one Tuesday, taking on a new identity ...

Parishioners of Holy Cross Catholic Church attend the first mass at Scalabrini Hall behind their burned church in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014.

Holy Cross remains a socially engaged parish, its 11-acre, pecan tree-lined campus serving as home to a Head Start program, a senior citizens center and a Catholic Charities office.

The group, despite being called Holy Cross, has been becoming more secular for nearly 20 years and has only a few lingering parts of its Catholic heritage, Kunzelman said.

The ornate crucifix of Holy Cross Catholic Church appeared to not even have any soot or singe marks, even as the rest of the church's interior was in ruins. The beloved Mary statue, the Virgin of ...