COVID-19 Response
The COVID-19 pandemic hit the Sagrado Corazón community hard, with many families unable to work and thus struggling to afford essentials like rent and food. However, the crisis was met with strength and resolve, as the church encouraged parishioners to stay home, offered free COVID-19 testing, and began distributing food and assisting with rent payments. The church also provided information about COVID-19 vaccines and offered free vaccinations.
In addition to COVID-19, many parishioners were deeply affected by the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 about a mile east of the church on 38th Street. The civil unrest provoked by Floyd's murder impacted the parish significantly due to its proximity to the site of the homicide. Fires, vandalism, and looting, especially along nearby Lake Street, exacerbated the effects of the pandemic on jobs, rent, and food security in the Sagrado Corazón community.1 For example, Mercado Central, a marketplace for Latinx businesses at the corner of Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue that Sagrado Corazón helped launch in the late 1990s, escaped the worst of the destruction but still faced looting and damage as well as questions about whether customers would return in the wake of the uprising.2
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Steve Brandt, "Food, rent, community for undocumented Kingfield parishioners," Southwest Journal, December 10, 2020, https://www.southwestjournal.com/voices/dateline-minneapolis/2020/12/food-rent-community-for-undocumented-kingfield-parishioners/#disqus_thread.↩
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Maya Rao, "After rioting, Midtown and Mercado Central anchor hopes for Lake Street's future," Star Tribune, June 11, 2020, https://www.startribune.com/after-rioting-midtown-area-mercado-central-anchor-hopes-for-lake-street-s-future/571176432/.↩
As was true of the pandemic, the tragedy of George Floyd's murder aslo met with messages of peace and hope. The church started drive-through free food distribution soon after the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul suspended public Masses on March 18, 2020, and the event became an important way to bring people together in a community reeling from Floyd's murder. According to the Sagrado Corazón website, by July 2021, the church had distributed over 1.5 million pounds of free food to more than 22,000 families. In addition to its own food distribution, the church provided information on its website and Facebook page about other programs to combat food insecurity.
The church has posted a bilingual weekly bulletin with readings, notes and updates from Father Kevin McDonough, and a schedule including times for daily Mass, food distribution, and special events.3 During the pandemic, Sunday Masses and special Masses were live-streamed on Facebook and made available afterwards, with hundreds and even thousands of people viewing them. Another publication was the bilingual "Safe Through the Storm" brochure, which disseminated information about the church's efforts in alieviating food insecurity, assisting with rent payment, and offering COVID-19 tests to those without access to them.4
The church's rental assistance program, dubbed 1+1+1=HOME, helped parish families avoid eviction and helped landlords maintain tenants. Through the program, the church would contribute a third of rent, the renters would contribute another third, and the rest would be negotiated with the landlord in partnership with the church's team of legal advocates. By February 2021, the program had distributed nearly $100,000 to distressed families.5
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"The Church of the Incarnation/Sagrado Corazon de Jesus," Parishes Online, https://www.parishesonline.com/find/the-church-of-the-incarnation-sagrado-corazon-de-jesus.↩
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Incarnation/Sagrado Corazón, "Safe Through the Storm," https://www.sagradompls.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=2083688&type=d&pREC_ID=2133970.↩
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Incarnation/Sagrado Corazón, "Safe Through the Storm, Volume #5," February 1 2021, https://4.files.edl.io/d344/02/04/21/214006-51979195-9da9-4e27-8502-495c49758e97.pdf.↩
