Indianapolis parish with German roots marks 150 years of faith

Archbishop Charles C. Thompson celebrates a Mass on Sept. 20 at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Indianapolis to mark the 150th anniversary of the founding of the faith community on the near southside of the city. (Submitted photo)

By Sean Gallagher

Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Indianapolis has its roots in the large number of German Catholic immigrants who settled in a neighborhood on the near southside of the city in the second half of the 19th century.

To serve their pastoral needs, Bishop Maurice de Saint Palais founded the parish in 1875 and arranged to have Franciscan friars based in St. Louis—themselves German immigrants—to minister there.

The parish grew quickly. Within three years of its founding, the parish had built a school, which soon had to be enlarged multiple times.

But what symbolized the rapid growth and strength of the parish was its large Late Gothic Revival church, completed in 1891, with its twin 165-feet steeples, which continue to dominate the skyline of Indianapolis’ near southside 150 years after the parish’s founding.

During the second half of the 20th century, the parish and neighborhood around it declined from their earlier glories as many families moved away from the near southside.

But Sacred Heart Parish remained through it all, even in the face of a destructive electrical fire in 2001 that gutted much of the interior of the parish church.

The church and its glorious sacred art featuring stained-glass windows, paintings and wood-carved altars, all emblematic of German old-world craftsmanship, were able to be restored. Similarly, throughout the past decade or so, the neighborhood around the parish and the parish community have seen their own revival.

People are moving back into the neighborhood. Old homes are being restored. And Sacred Heart Parish is being filled with new life and new parishioners, including a number of young families who come to it from near and far.

Both new and longtime parishioners came together on the weekend of Sept. 20-21 to celebrate Sacred Heart’s first 150 years, a celebration which was also an expression of their hopes for the future of the parish.

Past and present linked together

Franciscan Father Ducanh Pham has led Sacred Heart since 2019. A native of Vietnam, he emigrated to the U.S. much like many of his predecessors who served as Sacred Heart’s pastor during its first several decades.

“I’m very aware of what happens when people come from another country and they don’t know the English language,” he said of the parish’s early history. “They want to come together with people of their own background and culture.”

Father Duc, as he’s known in the parish, has seen links between the changes in the parish in recent years to its early history.

“The commonality here is a sense of uprootedness and trying to find a home,” he said. “That’s what’s happening with our people. There are a lot of people who are new in the neighborhood.”

Looking at Sacred Heart’s history, Father Duc sees three “foundations” for the parish. The first was its original founding in 1875. The second was in the restoration of the church after the fire in 2001. The third is happening now as the parish community is working to put its church on a firm footing for the future.

“We’ve taken care of the roof,” he said. “We’re taking care of the bricks and mortar. We’re sealing our windows and restoring the artwork on the inside. We want to make sure that this is the third foundation so that the people in the future can continue to use this as a beautiful worship space.”

The parish ‘is not just a building’

An archive photo dating from 1928 shows the campus of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Indianapolis. The 165-foot tall twin steeples continue today to dominate the skyline of the near southside of the city. (Submitted archive photo from The Indiana Album)

Sacred Heart parishioner Alan Goebes takes pride in his faith community and its beautiful church. His great-grandparents came to the parish in the 1880s as immigrants from Bavaria in southern Germany at the time of the building of the Gothic church.

A man who has done research on Sacred Heart’s history, Goebes came to the parish instead of going to work on April 27, 2001, after learning of the early morning fire that gutted the church.

“It was really disheartening,” he recalled.

Goebes served on a committee that helped guide the restoration work of the structure. Seeing it return to its former glory, along with other improvements made to the church, made Sacred Heart’s history come alive for Goebes.

“It made you think what it must have been like back in the 1930s when they basically finished the church,” he said of the time when the interior decoration of the church was completed.

At 81 and a lifelong member of Sacred Heart, Alma Blake has lived through more than half of her faith community’s history. For much of that time, its beautiful church and the worship that went on there were at the heart of her understanding of the parish.

The fire in 2001 began to change her perspective. The parish was forced to celebrate Mass in its social hall a block north of the parish campus. The building had previously been a bank, so it had nothing of the beauty of the parish church.

“Then it dawned on me that [the parish] is not just a building,” Blake recalled with emotion.

Now, knowing that she’s closer to the end of her life, Blake hopes that her beloved parish will continue strong into the future, continuing to be linked to the surrounding neighborhood, even as it has changed so much from the time of her childhood.

“We need more evangelization in the neighborhood,” Blake said. “There are people there who are not Catholic, have not had an affiliation with a church. I think they need to know what the values of Sacred Heart really are.”

‘Part of the whole history of it’

Michael and Naomi Coney and their six children are doing their part to keep the parish and the neighborhood close together. The husband and wife moved to the parish in 2009 as young adults when both were in their 20s. They married in 2013 and have watched the parish grow along with their family.

“When our oldest was born [10 years ago], she was probably the only kid under the age of 12 or 15,” said Michael, who lives with his family in a home about a block from the parish. “There may have been a couple of teenagers there, but that was it. Now, there are many families [with children] there.

“It is encouraging to see the parish growing. Our hope is always in the Lord. But it’s also hopeful to see the size of the congregation growing.”

During the time that he and his family have been members of Sacred Heart, he’s seen other younger families moving into the neighborhood and joining the parish. At the same time, he sees the parish being a draw to newcomers who don’t share his faith.

“There are people who are neighbors who come to the church who aren’t Catholic,” Coney said. “They’re curious or just want to pray. They come to the church because it’s there.

“I really hope for the parish to become a source of life for the neighborhood both in the life of the Catholic Church and its parishioners, but also in the broader community, drawing people into the Church who are not part of the Church.”

The parish is also a source of life for people who live far from it and have become parishioners in recent years. Rodney Asher was received into the full communion of the Church at Sacred Heart’s Easter Vigil in 2024. At the same time, his wife Karen returned to the practice of the Catholic faith after having been away from the Church for many years.

Although the couple live on the westside of Indianapolis, both are active in many ministries and committees at Sacred Heart, some of which involve outreach in the neighborhood.

“It’s really deepened my faith,” said Rodney. “My faith journey has been unbelievably joyful.”

“It’s great for me to get to grow with some of the people in the parish and get involved in activities that help not only the parish, but also the community,” added Karen.

Although they don’t have ties to the parish’s historic roots like Goebes and Blake, the Ashers see themselves and other new families at Sacred Heart as continuing on the legacy of those who have gone before them.

The early years of the parish, with all its building and expansion, said Rodney, “was their time to do what they needed to do. Now, it’s our time to do what we need to do. It makes you feel like you’re part of the whole history of it. You’re doing your part for future generations.”
 

(To learn more about Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Indianapolis, visit www.sacredheartindy.com.) †