“A Bloody Big Deal,” new Sacred Heart Church officially opens

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The dedication of the new Sacred Heart Church took place June 14, beginning with a procession which started from the Holy Cross Collegiate. 

“I think what we have witnessed here together tonight was the birth of something. Maybe not quite as literal as the birth of a new child or a new form of life, but this birth of this building is a sign of the community that already exists,” said Father Cristino Bouvette, pastor of the Sacred Heart Parish in Strathmore. “The fact that it was filled tonight is a sign that these people have been longing for a permanent and noble place to worship God. Until now, they have been stuck for 16 years in a school gym. We have made the most of it, but tonight is the realization of many people’s years of hard efforts.”

Bouvette explained the parish intentionally left distributing information about the dedication until the last minute, so as to not exceed the occupational capacity of the building. He estimated it was approximately 80 per cent full during the course of the ceremony. 

The fire capacity of the building is set for 545 people in the worship area, and 220 people in the hall.

“This is a very momentous thing. For Catholics, building a church is not something that happens on a weekly basis. Our Bishop has been a bishop now for 14 years; this is only the second time that he has dedicated a church. This is not something that comes up that often,” said Bouvette. “For him to have been with us here (Friday night) is a sign that we have accomplished something remarkable, and for most of the people here, it is unlikely to be something they will ever see again.”

An open house was hosted at the church, Dec. 10, while it was under reconstruction. The building formerly served as an IGA grocery store and a building supply store before the land and building were purchased by the Sacred Heart Church for remodeling. 

The overall budget of the project, from the purchase of the land and structure, to rebuilding it into a place of worship was set at approximately $10 million. 

“It has been 17 years since the old church was closed, and 16 years since the building was demolished, and so this parish have been without a physical place to call a church except for the Holy Cross Collegiate gym for all of these years,” said Bouvette. “A lot of people were skeptical that we were ever going to get here because it has been so long, and there have been so many setbacks and so many times that things just did not go the way that we had hoped … as it got closer and closer, and for the first time, they came in the building and saw the progress in the first open house, people started to say we were really going to do this.”

Bouvette added for the immediate future, the church will be largely focused on settling into their new building, recovering and organizing things which have been scattered through the community for the last 16 years, prior to many programs and services being established.