It’s a familiar story in urban parishes in the United States.

Catholic immigrants in the early 1900s scrape enough money together to build a large, grand church for their bustling urban neighborhood. Then times change and industry and jobs disappear. A dwindling number of stalwarts keep the lights on and the doors open, but mounting maintenance costs and shrinking collections ultimately force the church’s closure over parishioners’ heartfelt protests.

What makes the situation different in Toledo, Ohio, however, is that the local government has stepped in to try to save a church by telling the Church what it can and can’t do.

The Diocese of Toledo is claiming the city is infringing on its religious freedom by not letting it demolish a closed church building, located on the city’s east side.

But some who admire Sacred Heart Church’s tower, turrets, arches, façade and windows say more effort ought to go into preserving the stately 118-year-old structure that anchors its neighborhood.

Michael Snyder, for instance, used to love seeing the sun shine through the century-old German stained glass depicting the birth of Jesus on the south side of the church during the 10:30 a.m. Mass on Sunday.

“I don’t know how to describe it. It was just marvelous,” Snyder told the Register.

Snyder, 86, a retired machine operator for General Motors who got married in the church in 1959 and converted to Catholicism around that time, served as a sacristan there for many years. In 2003, he said, he was one of several men of the parish who as volunteers redid the floors, reconfigured the pews, and made the altar handicapped-accessible so a priest in a wheelchair could say Mass there.

For him, the idea of tearing down the building is more than sad.

“It hurts my heart,” Snyder said.

 

 

A Money Issue

Yet the diocese says that’s the best option.

Sacred Heart Church, which opened Christmas Day 1906, closed earlier this year. At the time, it was one of three churches in a consolidated parish that is struggling.

The diocese says it would take at least $1 million to make repairs the building needs. The parish can’t raise it, because the congregation is far smaller than it used to be.

A developer submitted a bid of $1 for the property, which would save demolition costs, which are also considerable (though not specified by the diocese). But he didn’t say what he’d use it for. Bishop Daniel Thomas, who heads the Diocese of Toledo, rejected the offer on that basis. (The developer has since said publicly that he wants to turn the church into a wedding venue.)

Without money to fix it or a reuse proposal the Church considers appropriate, the best option is to knock the building down so it doesn’t become an eyesore and a hazard, the bishop says.

Enter City Hall.

On July 17, the Toledo City Council voted 11-0 for an ordinance creating a one-year moratorium on demolishing buildings “of historical community importance,” which it defines as “privately-owned structures that have been in existence for at least 75 years and whose purpose, among others, was to be used as a regular gathering place for individuals for a common goal,” including “community and/or cultural centers, places of worship, or other structures that regularly gathered together 20 or more individuals for a common purpose.”

The ordinance never mentions Sacred Heart Church but seems aimed at it. The principal sponsor of the measure, Theresa Gadus, represents the neighborhood that includes the church on the Toledo City Council.

She was the only one to address the measure before the vote, saying the ordinance is important for “the vision, the future of Toledo.”

“I really feel that as we’re moving forward, it’s important for us to preserve the past, and this will help aid us there,” Gadus said during the City Council meeting on July 17 (at 1:17:37 of the video).

The diocese calls the demolition moratorium “both surprising and distressing,” as well as “unconstitutional and facially invalid.”

Previous attempts to save closed churches in Toledo have led to dilapidated structures that are both a blight and a danger, the diocese said in a written statement July 30.

If the city persists with the demolition moratorium, the diocese said, “the Diocese will have no choice but to pursue legal action to protect its First Amendment religious freedom rights, which almost certainly would cost the City considerable taxpayer funds in legal fees.”

“We would hope that reason will prevail, and that City Council will rescind the ban and concentrate on addressing the critical issues facing our City instead of interfering in matters which are within neither its purview nor authority,” the diocese said.

The Register sought comment from all 12 members of the Toledo City Council and from Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, but did not receive any by deadline.

Sacred Heart was featured in a December 2009 program on religious buildings in the city produced by local public television station WGTE called Holy Toledo. (The church appears at about 10:50 of the online video.)

 

 

Legal Case?

Legal experts contacted by the Register said the dispute could make for an interesting court case if it gets that far.

They all agreed that at least two legal issues are potentially in play: whether the city’s demolition moratorium infringes on the diocese’s free exercise of religion under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and whether it violates a federal statute known as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, which gives churches a workaround for local zoning restrictions.

Rebecca Tushnet, a professor at Harvard Law School and a First Amendment expert, called the Toledo church dispute “fertile ground for litigation.”

She noted that the U.S. Supreme Court may be moving away from its previous view that a neutral law of general applicability that happens to affect religious practices shouldn’t get what the courts call “strict scrutiny” to see if it violates constitutional rights.

Peter Teachout, a professor at Vermont Law School, said the diocese’s case under the federal statute is plausible but not a slam dunk.

“The question in this case would be whether a ‘moratorium’ on demolition in the context you describe is covered by the act,” Teachout told the Register by email. “There is also the question of whether adoption of the moratorium measure inhibits religious worship in the way denial of a zoning permit for construction of a place of worship would. If the court were however to so decide and apply ‘strict scrutiny’ to the moratorium, the city would almost certainly lose.”

Barry McDonald, a professor at Pepperdine University’s Caruso School of Law, said the diocese “could assert a number of strong religious-freedom-related legal claims,” including the doctrine of church autonomy under the First Amendment against what he called “secular interference with church decisions”; a free-exercise-of-religion claim under the First Amendment if the diocese can show the city’s demolition moratorium is directed against the diocese’s property; a state claim under an Ohio law that protects religious freedom; and, possibly, a federal claim under the federal statute that prevents zoning restrictions on churches, if a court finds that a moratorium on demolition amounts to a zoning restriction.

Two Views

As for the dispute over whether to preserve Sacred Heart or tear it down, Larry Michaels, historian for the East Toledo Historical Society, can see both sides.

He appreciates Sacred Heart for its beauty. As a Lutheran minister (now officially retired, but active), he occasionally co-officiated with a Catholic priest at mixed-marriage weddings at Sacred Heart.

As the main author of three books about the community (East Side Story, East of the Maumee River and East Toledo At Work), he sees the Sacred Heart building as a pillar of a place that has known hard times and is trying to make a comeback.

While Sacred Heart is in a rough area, during the last decade or so, new apartment buildings have gone up along the river. The 1914 Collegiate Gothic-style Morrison R. Waite High School has been renovated; it’s not far from Sacred Heart.

“And so, that’s why a lot of people are upset that it’ll be torn down. It’s kind of a landmark church. Just as things are reviving, they’re going to lose this landmark building,” Michaels said. “There’s a lot of community interest for finding another use for the building.”

The neighborhood is starting to attract more people.

“And given some time, the congregation could revive somewhat,” Michaels said. “It’s just the repair costs are so high, and what do you do with the building in the meantime?”

Bishop Thomas celebrated Sacred Heart’s last Mass on Jan. 6, the Epiphany.

“You need to know that this is heartbreaking for me. I have no doubt how heartbreaking it is for you,” the bishop said during the sermon.

He alluded to proposals that the church be used for apartments or for rock climbing or as a pool, all of which he said miss the point of the building.

“And you and I know that there is one purpose and one purpose alone for which this parish was founded and for which this church was built: to do the Lord homage and to offer worship and praise,” Bishop Thomas said.

Later, he alluded to something the church’s last pastor had said:

“So this evening I invite you to consider that simple phrase — that we’re not in the business of saving buildings, we’re in the business of saving souls.”