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.