Ms Mulholland has said: "Thankfully, the alarm was raised and the Parish Priest was able to attend to the fire promptly before it took hold, but it remains the case that this was an absolutely unacceptable attack on a place of worship within our community.
"I have spoken with the Parish Priest today to offer my full support to him and to the parishioners of Our Lady and St Patrick’s. Along with my council colleague for the area, Cllr Lee Kane, we will endeavour to do whatever we can to offer assistance to the Parish after this incident.
"This harkens back to a dark, troubling period in our past and nobody wants to see a return of attacks of this nature on places of worship or of cultural significance.
"If you have any relevant information about the incident, I would urge you to please contact the PSNI on their non-emergency number 101 quoting the reference 1540 19/11/23."