Sagrado Corazón de Jesús History

The logo for the Comunidad Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (Sacred Heart of Jesus Community), which shares a building with the Church of the Incarnation.

From 1933 until 1985, the historic Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Saint Paul was the only Catholic church in the Twin Cities area that offered services in Spanish.¹ During that period, Spanish-speaking Catholics living in Minneapolis would drive or take the bus to attend Mass in Saint Paul. Beginning in the 1970s, the Twin Cities experienced a rapid increase in immigration from Mexico and Central and South America. From 1990 to 2000, the Hispanic population in Minnesota nearly tripled from just above 50,000 to over 140,000.² The 1990 census reflected a heavy concentration of the Hispanic population in South Minneapolis, which led to growing demand for a local parish that offered Mass in Spanish. The first church to offer Spanish Mass in Minneapolis was the Church of the Ascension in 1985. The second was Sagrado Corazón in 1992.³

Unlike other churches that began offering Spanish Mass, Sagrado Corazón developed out of an English-speaking parish, Saint Stephen's in South Minneapolis, which had become a focus for Hispanic community development.⁴ Under the leadership of Deacon Carl Valdez and Father Larry "Lorenzo" Hubbard, the Hispanic community at Saint Stephen's took on a distinct identity and became the community of Sagrado Corazón, but remained in the same building as Saint Stephen. Sagrado Corazón strove to address its parishioners' needs in the late 1990s by preparing for sacraments and offering English classes and instruction on economic opportunities and entrepreneurship.⁵ In 1999, the community launched Mercado Central, a marketplace for Latine businesses at the corner of Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue in Minneapolis.⁶

As Sagrado Corazón grew, the community purchased an additional meeting space and a building for offices. They also began to celebrate Hispanic-Catholic events, including patronal feast days and festivals full of lively dancing and music primarily from Mexico, Ecuador, and Peru.⁷ Even with these new spaces, by 2000 Saint Stephen had become too small to house the growing Sagrado Corazón community.⁸ The office of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis approached the leadership of the Church of the Incarnation about receiving a Spanish-speaking church as a tenant in their building in the early 2000s. Eventually, a partnership formed between Incarnation and Sagrado Corazón, brokered by Father Kevin McDonough, who became senior pastor of both Incarnation and Sagrado Corazón in 2009.

Sagrado Corazón’s first Spanish Mass in the shared church building was held on November 10, 2002. From 2003 to 2005, Sagrado Corazón worked on transferring all of its operations to Incarnation. During this time, the churches worked alongside each other but the communities remained mostly separate. Membership at Sagrado Corazón grew rapidly, with estimates of regular churchgoers between 4000 and 5000.⁹ In fact, the Spanish Masses at Sagrado are typically much fuller than the English Masses at Incarnation. "They are always having events, quinceañeras, weddings, baptisms, it keeps us open," said Mary Knudsen, a parishioner and secretary at Incarnation.¹⁰

Sagrado Corazón has continued to develop resources for the Hispanic community in South Minneapolis and promote understanding of its distinct cultures and societies through educational programs and organizations such as its Aztec dance groups.¹¹ The community also does immigration, social justice, and human rights work.¹²