Mike Snyder is known around Epiphany of the Lord Parish as “Mr. Sacred Heart.”
He’s a server at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, sings in the parish choir, and volunteered with and recorded the 2003 renovations.
He converted to Catholicism at the church, was married there in 1959, and two of his great grandchildren were baptized on the day a basement wall caved in.
“Any time somebody mentions about it closing, it hurts. It hurts,” Mr. Snyder, 86, said at Sacred Heart, wearing a green Epiphany parish polo shirt.
The Rev. Eric Mueller recently announced to parishioners that the sanctuary, which is one of three churches making up the East Toledo parish, will close.
After more than two years of formal conversations within the parish, Father Mueller petitioned Bishop Daniel Thomas in September to relegate, or deconsecrate, the building. A decree signed Oct. 4 by Bishop Thomas and the diocese’s chancellor Sister Rose Marie Timmer allows for the demolition or sale with certain restrictions of Sacred Heart Church.
The church will continue to be used through December.
Father Mueller said the 117-year-old building requires significant repairs and that the spiritual needs of the parish can be met through its other two campuses, St. Stephen of Hungary and St. Thomas Aquinas. The three churches merged into one parish in 2013.
“It's really sad because you think about what was and how thriving this was … but at the same time, too, we have to be more focused on mission as a church,” said Father Mueller, who has led Epiphany since July, 2020.
A 140-year history
Sacred Heart Parish was formed by 68 families of German Catholic immigrants living in East Toledo who had previously had to cross the Cherry Street bridge to attend the nearest German-speaking church, St. Mary of the Assumption, according to a booklet published in 2008 documenting Sacred Heart’s history. (St. Mary’s was originally located on Cherry Street at Michigan Street, and in 1904 was rebuilt on Page Street, near where Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center now is. That church closed in 2005.)
“It would have been [different] in the early 1900s when you had these neighborhood churches, which were the center of the neighborhood and center of people's lives,” Father Mueller said. “The whole history of the previous parishes comes into who we are today.”
Six Catholic churches were formed in East Toledo to serve different ethnic groups. Two of those churches were also relegated in decrees this month: Good Shepherd on Clark Street and St. Louis on Sixth Street.
Good Shepherd, established in 1873 for the Irish community, closed in 2015. Taking care of this property falls upon the diocese.
St. Louis, established in 1871 for the French community, has not been used for religious services since 2005. It’s since been home to the Helping Hands of St. Louis ministry, though it hadn’t been formally deconsecrated for worship.
Sacred Heart Church was constructed in 1883 at 509 Oswald St., and was initially part of the Diocese of Cleveland. A fire destroyed the original church building in 1900 and a new cathedral-size German Gothic Romanesque stone church was constructed between 1900 and 1906.
The stained glass windows lining the sanctuary walls depict the story of the Bible from the Garden of Eden to the Last Supper to the Coronation of Mary. They were crafted by the Emil Frei art glass company based in St. Louis, which continues to produce Munich-style windows for churches. The family names of early parishioners who donated to the windows are noted on the glass.
The church sustained another fire in 1975, which damaged the organ and altar. A number of remodels and repairs took place between the 1980s and the early 2000s.
Steve Conine, a former student of Sacred Heart School and still a current member of the church, painted the 12 apostles on the ceiling — incorporating his own and two priests’ faces into some of the 8-foot-tall figures.
Mr. Snyder was part of the renovation team in 2003, which involved removing altar rails, moving the altar forward, and making the space more accessible, among other projects. While flipping through a photo album from the three-month project, he recalled school children writing their names inside a wall.
“It's like a home; it's a relaxing feeling to be here,” Mr. Snyder said of the sanctuary.
“You know, when you spend time on your hands and knees doing this,” he pointed to the altar he helped renovate, “it's nothing to be on your knees to pray.”
Mr. Snyder also recalled when an inner wall in the basement collapsed in 2019 because of moisture penetrating the foundation from the downspouts. He said it “came crashing down” during the luncheon for his great grandkids' baptism. The parish’s then-pastor deemed the basement unsafe and closed it for use.
Relegation process
“It wasn't just a quick decision. It was a lengthy decision and a lot of thought went into it, in how we proceeded and what we did,” Karen Van Dyke said of the relegation. She’s the chair of Epiphany’s Facilities and Mission Task Force.
Ms. Van Dyke grew up attending Mass and school at the former Holy Rosary Parish in the Birmingham neighborhood, and was a member there until the church shut its doors in 2005. She recalled the closure being "very devastating" and felt called to be involved with the process at Sacred Heart to provide support to others.
“To me, when Holy Rosary closed, it was like a death in the family. You have to go through all the stages [of grief],” Ms. Van Dyke said. “For the people that have been in this church for many years, they'll be going through that. And I just think that we need to find ways that we can support them and help them through this.”
Father Mueller called the task force together in the spring of 2021 to determine the future of the parish and its assets. Informal conversations among leadership had been occurring for years, he noted.
RCM Architects, based in Findlay, was hired to look at the options objectively. The group conducted both a facilities assessment through physical inspection and a needs assessment through interviews with parish ministries. The architects presented their findings to the task force in June, 2022, and to the parish at large that September. The parish study offered seven options to consider.
“There were extremes. There was doing nothing … [or] the nuclear option: abandon all the campuses and go somewhere new, which they estimated like 17 million [dollars],” Father Mueller explained. “The data pointed to [decommissioning] Sacred Heart because of the things that need to be done, which includes the roof, which is at end of life, [and] an issue with a wall in the basement, which if that would be looked at there could be further possible problems that we're not aware of now.”
The study also shows that between 2016 and 2020, nearly 25 percent of Epiphany’s expenses went toward maintaining its facilities, compared to the average parish in the diocese spending around 10 percent on upkeep.
Relegation removes the blessing and dedication from the building. With the bishop’s decree, the building is officially “reduced to profane but not sordid use,” which means a church building can be used for a secular use that would not be opposed to church teaching or offensive to it being a place where sacraments were previously celebrated.
According to church law, there's a 10-day period after a relegation is made public during which people can write the bishop to object the decision and seek revocation of the decree. After receiving his response, they could file a formal appeal to the Vatican.
Father Mueller said in an interview before an announcement was made that he hoped people wouldn’t appeal the decision because it would slow the process.
“I think there's some acceptance, and people have known for a long time that something needed to be done,” the pastor said. “Sacred Heart has been brought up for probably since before I came.”
Final steps
All sacred items — such as statues, stained glass, and the altar — will be cataloged and offered first to be sold to churches in the Diocese of Toledo, and then offered to other dioceses. Father Mueller finds it fitting, he said, for Epiphany to keep the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and anticipates keeping some other items within the parish.
A priest in the Diocese of Phoenix might be interested in some windows and pillars for a university church project, he said.
After a last Mass is celebrated at Sacred Heart, Father Mueller intends to have the building razed.
He said it would be difficult to find a proper buyer, that the parish would still have to maintain the building, and that removing the structure allows for closure.
“The analogy I use is it's like having a funeral without a burial," he said. “People can't move on."
Father Mueller said the rectory next to the church would also be demolished. The building behind the rectory was torn down on Wednesday, according to Mr. Snyder. Sacred Heart school closed in 2009 and is now Toledo Preparatory Academy’s elementary school. The pastor also said the school at St. Stephen’s will likely be sold and the old convent there would be torn down.
Mr. Snyder said last month he doesn’t know where he’ll start attending services after Sacred Heart closes. “I may become a roamin’ Catholic,” he said in a play-on-words to his denomination. He said Wednesday he’s contemplating writing an appeal, but wasn’t sure whether it would make a difference.
“I know how much I give per month, plus Easter and Christmas, I know a big round sum of what I give,” he said. “If I go to another church, they'll lose that.”
Masses will continue to be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Sundays through December.
Epiphany of the Lord Choir and Friends also is set to perform John Rutter’s Requiem at 4 p.m. Oct. 29 at Sacred Heart.
“I want this done in a thoughtful and caring manner,” Ms. Van Dyke said of the closure process, “because this church is not only a place where we worship God, but it's a place where people come for peace, for comfort, for solace, for celebration.
“And I want the people of this church to remember all those good times.”
First Published October 22, 2023, 11:00 a.m.