How Sacred Heart, Carrington plans to use Living Our Faith campaign funds

As you may know by now, 30% of the initial funds raised by the “Living our Faith, Building our Future” campaign supports the needs of parishes. Once a parish surpasses its campaign goal, the parish retains 70% of the funds raised. Sacred Heart Church in Carrington is one parish that has surpassed its goal and is now entering the next stage: using the money raised for the needs of Sacred Heart. 

Sacred Heart completed a 3-year capital campaign from 2016 to 2019, raising almost $500K. Already, many projects and repairs in the Church and parish hall have been completed, ensuring that the building is in good condition for decades to come. The kitchen renovations are all that is left for that project and funds for it have already been collected. 

This begs the question, what will the Living Our Faith campaign money be used for? 

Father Darrick Leier, pastor of Sacred Heart, presented this question in a homily in the fall of 2024. “I suggest we use [this money] to focus our hearts and minds on our Lord, our King, and our Savior—Jesus Christ. I suggest we do something to help us more fully orient our lives around Christ. I suggest we do something to help us ensure that Jesus is the absolute center of our life, our family, and most importantly, our worship. I suggest, the way we begin that, is by physically establishing Jesus Christ in the center of our Church by moving the Tabernacle of his Real Presence to the right and proper place in the center of the Sanctuary! That, to me, sounds like a Eucharistic Revival!” 

Many of the most beautiful Catholic churches and cathedrals were built with the tabernacle at the center of the sanctuary because the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith (Lumen Gentium). In the 1970s many architects decided to move Jesus off to the side. 

Father Leier shared why he thinks it best to move the tabernacle back to the center of the sanctuary. “Think about this—I heard a priest say this once that helped me understand so much better how the Mass should be celebrated, and how the worship space of a Church should be designed. The sanctuary should be built in a way that if someone walked into our Church who didn’t know English and knew nothing about Jesus or Christianity—that person should be able to look around and determine what is most important to the people who gather here.” 

What currently occupies that place in the center is a chair for the priest. 

The place at the center of all our attention, prayer, and worship is where the Lord should be positioned. The Presence of Jesus in the Tabernacle should be stationed right below the greatest and most powerful image of love on earth—which is Jesus on the cross—the crucifix. 

Two beautiful angel statues were donated to the parish three years ago and are meant to be positioned on both sides of the Tabernacle, symbolizing the Seraphim angels closest to God in heaven, worshiping him. They also symbolize the angel statues that God commanded Moses to be molded on the Arc of the Covenant. They also symbolize the two angels that God commanded to guard the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis. 

Swapping the placements of the clergy chair(s) and the tabernacle will require expanding the upper platform step of the sanctuary. This will provide enough room for the chair(s) to be positioned to the side of the altar and face directly towards the altar, instead of angled towards the pews. 

“The priest should face God like all of you are because his worship and the Mass is directed towards God the Father alone,” Father Leier said. 

Father Leier also suggested a way to beautify the sanctuary using the wooden background surrounding the crucifix. “To me, it’s an open canvas! An idea I have is to surround the crucifix with painted wood carvings of the 12 apostles. Jesus said to his apostles, “I am the Vine, you are the Branches.” There is a powerful ancient icon depicting an image of this. Jesus centered as the vine with branches going out to the 12 apostles who are surrounding him. I think that would look so awesome surrounding our crucifix.”