Holy Angels parishioners mourn loss of church; work to grow parish

Denny Excavating workers use a large excavator to remove the Holy Angels Church steeple on Aug. 22 during demolition of the 109-year-old frame church, which was badly deteriorated. It was condemned by city inspectors last year. The church was located at the corner of West 28th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street in Indianapolis. Land for the parish was purchased in 1899 by Father Stephen Donoghue, assistant pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Indianapolis. The cornerstone was laid on April 26, 1903, and the church was dedicated on Oct. 4, 1903. (Submitted photo by Eric Atkins) Click for a larger version.

By Mary Ann Garber

As Holy Angels School sixth-grade students sadly watched a demolition crew use excavators to tear down the parish’s historic church on Aug. 22, their principal, Sherlynn Pillow, explained that the 109-year-old white frame building wasn’t safe to worship in anymore.

Decades of weather damage had weakened the wooden structure, she told the children, so the church had to be taken down.

While she talked with the students, a large section of the roof fell to the ground without being pushed by an excavator. (See a photo gallery here)

During a media interview, Pillow said she has many memories of the little church built on a hill at the corner of West 28th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street in Indianapolis.

“I was raised in this community,” she said. “It’s very hard for me to watch this building go down because I was baptized here. My entire family was baptized here. When I got the position at Holy Angels School [three years ago], it was like God calling me home. … It’s bittersweet, but we know that we have to move forward. We can do that, and grow the parish even larger.”

Even so, she said, it will be hard for parishioners and students to look at the site of the former church and see only the bronze angel statue standing as a spiritual beacon on the hill to welcome people to the center city faith community.

“Martin Luther King Jr. was here,” Pillow recalled. “[Sen.] Robert F. Kennedy stood on the parking lot here. One of my friends has a picture of her dad lifting her up to shake his hand right here. A lot of historical things have happened here.

“I said a prayer earlier,” she said. “I told the kids at morning celebration that this was a sad day because the building was going down, however the building is not the Church. I asked them, ‘Who is the Church?’ And they all said, ‘We are the Church.’ So they understand that this is just a structure, but the Church continues on. Holy Angels Parish continues on, and we have the mission of upholding the name. I don’t want people to think that Holy Angels [Parish] is gone. We’re still a vital presence on the near west side.”

Twins Imani and Immanuel Buntin may not realize how important the church has been as a symbol of the black Catholic presence in this neighborhood for many years, but they know how much they liked participating in Masses there.

“It was an awesome church,” Imani said. “I think it’s sad. I was hoping to be graduated there [next May]. … I hope people will still come here even though we don’t have a church. We have our school Mass in the gym.”

Her brother also said he was looking forward to participating in the sixth-grade graduation Mass at the old church.

“I was hoping it would last a little bit longer,” Immanuel said, “but with all the problems it had we kind of knew it was going to have to be torn down someday.”

The twins were born in 2000—97 years after the completion of the church.

“I want Catholic people and other people that haven’t gone to church to come here,” Immanuel said, “and praise God with us.”

After the badly deteriorated building was condemned last year, the last Mass was celebrated on Oct. 9, 2011, and the church was decommissioned on Jan. 5.

“We had quite a crowd for the last Mass,” said Father Kenneth Taylor, the pastor for six years.

Since then, Holy Angels’ 512 parishioners and guests have worshiped at 6 p.m. on Saturdays at the Parish Center—which was built in 1999 with the new school—and at 9 a.m. on Sundays at Marian University’s Bishop Chartrand Memorial Chapel.

A son of the parish, Father Taylor remembers helping as an altar server for Masses during his childhood.

“I received all of my sacraments here,” he said. “I went through school here through the eighth grade. I was ordained a deacon in this church then [after his ordination to the priesthood] celebrated my first Mass here in this church.”

In April 2011, Father Taylor said, the parish was notified by city inspectors that there were a number of code violations in the building.

“We knew that the church was in very bad shape,” he said. “We did an assessment of the building, and the structural damage was so advanced that it was really impossible to try to fix all of the violations. They said, ‘If you can’t fix the church, you can’t use the church.’ So we had to vacate it.”

Holy Angels parishioners “want to rebuild on this site,” Father Taylor said. “We haven’t got permission [for a capital campaign] yet, but we want to continue to be a presence in the neighborhood.”

Two copper crosses and the huge bronze bell were salvaged from the church, and Father Taylor hopes that, God willing, they can be installed in a new building sometime in the future.

“Marian University has welcomed us to have Masses at their chapel, and it has worked out well for us to worship there,” he said. “There have even been a couple of opportunities for us to have joint liturgies with the Marian community. We shared the Easter Vigil Mass, and had a Martin Luther King Jr. service together.”

Franciscan Sister Jannette Pruitt was among a large gathering of parishioners who watched the demolition.

“God kept the roof up over our heads while we were in the church,” she said. “The parish has a lot of wonderful people. They’ve very strong and very determined to go forward.”

Deacon Bradley Anderson, who has ministered at the parish for five years, surveyed the crowd in the parking lot.

“This is the only spiritual home that many of them have known,” he said. “It’s hard watching the church come down, but I think when God closes one door he opens another. I’m sure another door will open for Holy Angels Parish.” †