Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church
10821 96th Street
Originally: “1429 Kinistino Avenue”
Architects: Hardie & Martland
Constructed: 1912-14
Sacred Heart’s origins date to 1911, where it formed as an off-shoot of the French-Language Church of Immaculate Conception. By then, Immaculate Conception “was bursting at the seams,” and church officials made the decision to reserve it for Francophone Catholics only. A new congregation, it was hoped by the Archdiocese, could lighten the load. Sharing the same parish boundaries as its French predecessor, Sacred Heart intended to provide a place “for all other Catholics” in the broader-McCauley area.
The Reverend Father Pilon, a pastor from Fort Saskatchewan, was responsible for “pushing forward the scheme of providing the English-speaking congregation with a church of their own.” His “flock” purchased a city lot opposite Kinistino Avenue from Immaculate Conception, and commissioned Hardie & Martland Architects to draft them a design. Construction began on May 15th, 1913.
The new Sacred Heart Catholic opened to parishioners on Christmas Day, that year — movers were still unloading furniture. Financed through the sale of its pews, the building cost its congregation an estimated $50,000. A flowery string of prose from the Edmonton Bulletin described it as a church that:
“At once conveys the impression of solemnity and sacred suggestion. The environment is thought-kindling. The light is somewhat pensive. The coloured windows, though not elaborate, give that note of seclusion which life demands sometimes.”
Officially consecrated on May 10th, 1914, the Bulletin wrote that Sacred Heart was:
“Another milestone in the development of East-End Roman Catholic denominations. A great gathering took place at the end of service, in the Sacred Heart Hall, where dinner was served. The ladies of the parish had been indefatigable in their efforts to make the dinner… The dinner was enhanced by the orchestra on the platform, and the festal note of the occasion was emphasized by special decorations with the word “Welcome” in large letters at the back of the platform.”
Although Sacred Heart was primarily an Anglo-Saxon parish, it welcomed others and became “an incubator for… immigrant groups to form their own Catholic congregations. Over the years, parishes representing Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Croatian, and Ethiopian communities got their start here.” Several significant Catholic parishes, like Santa Maria Goretti, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Fatima, and the Nativity of Mary, can all trace their lineage back to Sacred Heart.
Flames erupted on November 17th, 1966. “After the three-alarm four-hour blaze was put out, little of value was left intact in the 53-year-old church.” Brickwork buckled, the roof slacked, rubble littered the nave. Only the church’s crucifix, firmly affixed to the east wall behind the altar, remained in place — an act of Divine providence, perhaps. In all, $200,000 worth of damage had been done.
The culprit was a child, described by the Edmonton Journal as — and excuse the outdated language here — “an eight-year-old mentally retarded” boy. He had been playing with a pack of matches:
“It is believed that the little boy tried to put out the fire after it was started, but was unsuccessful. He then went to a nearby store to report the fire, and the owner of the store phoned the fire department.
The same lad was picked up by a patrolman about two blocks from the scene of the fire.
‘I didn’t mean to do it, I didn’t mean to do it… I’m scared’, he told a policewoman.”
It was Edmonton’s first major church-fire in twenty-two years — the last completely destroyed St. Francis of Assisi Catholic in North Edmonton. As Sacred Heart’s website writes, however, “although a disaster, the fire’s timing was a blessing: the Second Vatican Council, ending in December 1965, had updated the Roman Catholic liturgy, requiring each parish to remodel the body of its church to accommodate the new style of communal worship.” A shell of a building was a good place to start.
In the years after, Sacred Heart slowly fostered a significant Indigenous membership, reflecting the shifting demographics of the McCauley community. Officials understood this, and through Fathers Gary LaBoucane and Gilles Gauthier’s devotion, the parish became recognized by the Archdiocese as Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples, Edmonton’s “First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Parish,” in October 1991.
The decision was well received by parish team-leader, Luicenne Meek, who said that “this is a dream come true.” It gave them a place to “[use] our own way of prayer as First Nations peoples. To be able to worship in freedom and acceptance of who we are.” A “liturgy blending singing in Latin with burning of sweetgrass, songs and prayers in Cree, Chipewyan and Blackfoot, and drumming and chanting by the Native Brotherhood from Edmonton Institution” rededicated the building.
Sources:
“Local,” Edmonton Journal, December 20, 1913.
“Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church,” Edmonton Bulletin, January 17, 1914.
“A Stranger in the Aisle,” Edmonton Bulletin, March 24, 1914.
“New Sacred Heart Church Is Consecrated by Archbishop,” Edmonton Bulletin, May 11, 1914.
“Retarded Orphan, 8, Held After City Church Fire,” Edmonton Journal, November 18, 1966.
“Sacred Heart Will Soon Be Reopened,” Edmonton Journal, December 9, 1967.
Roma De Robertis, “Native Catholics’ Dream Comes True,” Western Catholic Reporter, October 1991.
Marina Jimenez, “Urban Native Church a ‘Joyous Birth’,” Edmonton Journal, December 24, 1991.
“Our Sacred Past: Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples,” Boyle McCauley News, January 2006.
“History," Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples, accessed December 18, 2021, https://sacredpeoples.com/history/
