Sacred Heart, Dearborn, marks 175th

November 17, 2011
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Dearborn — Archbishop Allen Vigneron told the people of Sacred Heart Parish Nov. 6 that theirs was one of the oldest anniversaries he had helped celebrate since becoming archbishop of Detroit.

“For 175 years, this parish has been a school of divine wisdom — wisdom that leads its parishioners to eternal life,” he said.

It is wisdom, Archbishop Vigneron continued, that teaches “how to make our way in the world for the sake of what is true and noble and good.”

As the oldest parish in western Wayne County, Sacred Heart Parish saw many other parishes carved out of what was originally its territory as the Catholic population grew throughout the 19th and much of the 20th centuries. As with other Dearborn parishes, however, recent decades have seen an increasing number of Muslims moving into the community as many Catholic families have moved elsewhere.

But despite demographic changes in its surrounding area, Sacred Heart “has a very strong core of faithful people who are dedicated to this parish,” said Fr. Peter Petroske, its pastor for the past three years.

Besides the parish having “an exceptional music program,” he pointed out that the parish school has an enrollment of 307 students.

Sacred Heart Parish got its start in 1836, when Fr. Bernard O’Kavanaugh, pastor of Most Holy Trinity Parish in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood, began making his way out the new Chicago Road (later to be called Michigan Avenue) to celebrate Mass for the Irish immigrant families in what was then the village of Dearbornville.

When a structure was built on Mason Street to serve the community, it was called St. John Church, but when a new church was built in 1875, the pastor requested that it be dedicated to the Sacred Heart instead.

 

The Sacred Heart Parish of today owes much to Fr. A.X.M. Sharpe, who became its pastor in 1916. It was he who acquired the property at Michigan Avenue and Military Stree tand built a school building, completed in 1918, that initially also housed the convent and church.

A new convent for the sisters followed in 1926, and work was begun on the current church in 1929, though the onset of the Great Depression delayed its completion. Enough of the work was finished by 1937 for it to be dedicated.

In 1954 the parish opened its new high school building, and although the high school closed in the mid-1970s, that building continues to house the pre-school and grade school.

The interior of the church was modified in the late 1960s in response to the changes that came in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, and a barrier-free parish hall was built in the 1990s.

Longtime parishioner Lawrence Goebel, 92, can remember starting the first grade at Sacrded Heart School back in 1925, and has many memories of serving at Mass under Fr. Sharpe.

“He was a tough guy – an old-time priest with some very rough edges – but he was the individual who had the greatest influence on my life,” said Goebel, who taught high school for some years, then had a career with Ford Motor Co., after which he taught for a number of years at the college level.

Although his family moved out of the parish during the Depression, he returned to it when he went to work for Ford, and has served as an usher and a lector.

“I’ve enjoyed all my time at Sacred Heart. I’ve always been impressed by the priests who’ve been assigned as its pastors, including our current pastor, Fr. Petroske,” Goebel added.

His family connections with the parish go back even further; he noted that his parents — Fran and Mae Goebel — were married in the old church in 1914 and that his father’s sister, Barbara, was married there in 1904 to Frank Daly, a descendant of one of the parish’s oldest families.

“His house was right at the corner of John Daly Road and Michigan Avenue,” Goebel added.

 

His family connections with the parish go back even further; he noted that his parents — Fran and Mae Goebel — were married in the old church in 1914 and that his father’s sister, Barbara, was married there in 1904 to Frank Daly, a descendant of one of the parish’s oldest families.

“His house was right at the corner of John Daly Road and Michigan Avenue,” Goebel added.

Mary Beth Oravec’s association with the parish don’t go back quite so far, but she is equally enthusiastic about it.  “My parents were married here in 1938, and raised their four kids here. I was born, in 1949, and raised here; and my husband, Joe, and I were married here in 1972, and we raised our kids here,” she said.

“It’s been a wonderful parish to belong to — it’s home, and there are good people here,” Oravec added.