Sacred Heart Church Tampa, Florida

Sacred Heart Church Tampa
During my first week as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Tampa, I found a note left on my desk by the parish archivist.

It read: "You are the thirty-ninth pastor, the twenty-ninth Jesuit pastor, of Sacred Heart Church." My personal association with Sacred Heart goes back to 1959 when my family moved to Tampa. The association was strengthened in September 1984, when I was ordained to the priesthood in Sacred Heart, and later, in 1997, when I was named its pastor.

Jesuits have been at this parish for 112 years. Coming to St. Louis Church in 1888, they planned a new church with a new name: Sacred Heart. Finished in 1904 and dedicated in 1905, Sacred Heart was designed to be an imposing presence in Tampa, the center of a missionary effort in central and south Florida and the "mother" of all Florida's Jesuit missions.

Fifty current parishes here trace their origin to Sacred Heart. In the early
days of the 1900s the parish concern was money to build and finance the mission work of the Jesuits.

Today the concern is to preserve not only the beautiful building but also the faith that was given to us, a faith that has been taught through the magnificent stained-glass windows that date to 1906. My horse-riding predecessor did not have to deal with major maintenance problems; the church was new. On the other hand, I don't have to rely on a horse for transportation. What we both rely upon is the guidance and the help of God who brings all things to a good end.

Fr. Kirk Mansell, SJ

Pastor

Fr. Alfred Latiolais, SJ, Sacred Heart's pastor and missionary to Catholics in the surrounding area from 1912 until 1929, got around to his various congregations at a trot.

Company Magazine, 2000-2001 (here)