ARTICLES

Sacred Heart Center to end programs Aug. 30

By Steve Neill
Of The Catholic Virginian

Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo has suspended the operation of Sacred Heart Center in South Richmond, effective Aug. 30, and asked Jesuit Father Shay Auerbach, pastor of Sacred Heart parish, and lay leadership to develop a master plan for the parish in which the building can be used most effectively by the parish for its own needs.

In a letter dated July 1, Bishop DiLorenzo has also dissolved the board of directors of the Center, effective immediately.

“Basically, the bishop is bringing back the original relationship between the (Sacred Heart) parish and the building which had previously served as the parish school,” said Dawn Crutchfield, director of the diocese’s Office for Black Catholics and liaison to the center’s board.

Sacred Heart School, once staffed by the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia, closed in the mid-1980s because of declining enrollment. It remained vacant for several years until a new vision for the building’s use as a neighborhood center was developed by then Bishop Walter F. Sullivan in 1990.

The two-story brick building is located in the 1400 block of Perry Street, a few blocks south of Richmond’s Lee Bridge, and is directly across the street from Sacred Heart Church.

Bishop Sullivan invited the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) to Richmond to develop a community center which would serve the needs of the Bainbridge and Blackwell inner city neighborhoods of Richmond.

In the letter Bishop DiLorenzo says his primary reasons for his decision to end operation of the center and dissolve the board is one, “the board’s discomfort in accepting the Catholic mission and identity of the Center,” and “the internal disorganization specifically with respect to the lack of direction and leadership exhibited by the Executive Committee.”

These two points are in addition to the bishop’s wish that the building used by Sacred Heart Center be part of the strategic master plan of the parish.

“The bishop wanted to take responsibility in his role as sole member of the corporation, which was defined by the center’s bylaws and to insure Catholic identity,” Ms. Crutchfield told The Catholic Virginian.

Some board members of Sacred Heart Center, said, however, they felt a heightened Catholic identity would impede them in fundraising efforts to sustain programs of the center, she added.

Melissa Canaday, who has been hired as interim director of the center, will serve in that position until the end of September. Current programs will continue to operate.

Sacred Heart Center’s current programs include Early Childhood Education, School Age Children and a family services program which provides a variety of services for parents in the evening.

Early Childhood Education operates Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. for about 40 children. In addition, there are about 30 in the School Age Children program.

“They are predominantly children from the local area, but we have some from other Richmond areas,” Ms. Canaday said.

The evening program offers classes for adults, but some, like yoga, include children as well.

“We have everything from parenting to self-defense for women,” Ms. Canaday said.

Other topics of classes include home ownership, résumé writing, college prep, stress management and fitness for moms.

“Community outreach will continue to those who are poor, marginated and persons with disabilities,” Bishop DiLorenzo said.

Father Auerbach will soon begin meeting with lay leaders of Sacred Heart parish to see that community outreach is part of the parish’s new master plan.

Ricky de Jesus, president of the parish pastoral council, says the parish center can immediately be used for religious education classes as well as for parish offices. Other options will now be available.

“Already we have had some Anglo people from the neighborhood ask if they can teach ESL (English as a Second Language) classes at the center,” Father Auerbach told The Catholic Virginian.

The classes, which began July 8, are held on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

Sunday worshippers at Sacred Heart Church are approximately 85 percent Hispanic, most of whom come from Mexico.

Mass in Spanish is celebrated on Sundays at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. The two liturgies in English are Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9 a.m.

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