PHOENIX — The church community of Sacred Heart Catholic Church is a testament to the power of faith, hard work, and sacrifice. Closed and boarded up 36 years ago, Sacred Heart and the spirit it personifies never wavered. So on Christmas Eve morning, volunteers cleaned windows and washed the floor in advance of the late afternoon Mass.
“Over the years they’ve been very clear this church is part of their history and so I want them to own it and enjoy it,” said Father Paul Sullivan, Pastor of Sacred Heart.
In the mid-1980s the Phoenix City Council had other plans, bulldozing the neighborhood and boarding up the church to make way for the expansion of Sky Harbor Airport. In later years the city council tried to demolish the church.
“I remember the day in 2017 when the city council voted that the community would lose their church,” Father Sullivan said.
But it never happened.
