LACEY – In 1923, the monks at St. Martin’s Abbey established Sacred Heart Church as a mission on neighboring property in Lacey.

By 1964, the faith community had grown to 500 households and the 180-seat church wasn’t able to accommodate 1,400 worshippers. A new church was dedicated by Archbishop Thomas Connolly in October 1967; in December 1967, Sacred Heart, which had become a mission of St. Michael Parish in Olympia, was raised to the status of a parish.

The original Sacred Heart Church was dedicated in 1923. A bigger church was dedicated in 1967, but the original church is still in use on the parish campus in Lacey. (Courtesy Sacred Heart Parish)

By 1979, when Sam and Pam Pellegrino came to Sacred Heart, the parish had grown to about 800 families. 

“We introduced ourselves to the choir, and we’ve been there ever since,” Pam Pellegrino said. 

Back then, about a dozen parishioners sang at one Mass on Sunday, she said. Now, choirs totaling more than 100 members sing at four parish Masses, she said.

A mother of nine, Pellegrino highlighted the children’s Mass that was organized by the former pastor, Benedictine Father Neal Roth (now the retired abbot at St. Martin’s Abbey).

“He would sit on the steps of the altar and converse with them on their level,” she recalled.

The parish also offered a preschool from 1981 to 2017, which the Pellegrino children attended.

Today, Sacred Heart has grown to more than 1,500 families, according to Ric Ordos, Sacred Heart’s pastoral assistant for administration. Father Tim Ilgen is the current pastor.

Father Tim Ilgen is the pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Lacey. (Courtesy Sacred Heart, Lacey)

It’s a diverse parish community, with active-duty military members, retirees and a Pacific Islander community that includes Samoans, Guamanians and Filipinos. Masses are celebrated in English, Korean and Spanish. 

Ordos said Sacred Heart has a variety of outreach ministries, including a clothing bank, a food pantry in conjunction with Thurston County Food Bank and Food Lifeline of Seattle, a parish garden and rent/utility assistance for those facing eviction or shutoff. Sacred Heart also partners with neighboring St. Michael Parish to offer a cold-weather shelter for homeless men from November through March. (Sacred Heart offers shelter on Friday through Sunday nights and St. Michael’s covers the other nights.) Outreach programs are funded by donations or grants, Ordos said.

The clothing bank and food pantry have their own buildings on campus, and the original church, now known as Fabian Hall, is used for Masses in Korean and ministry gatherings, including Hispanic digital radio.

A statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe is seen in Sacred Heart Church in Lacey. (Photo: Ric Ordos)

The parish’s Hallen Hall, constructed in 1989, is the site of many parish events.

“I was very fortunate to be on the parish council at the time,” said Sam Pelligrino, a restaurant owner who said he designed the hall’s commercial kitchen.

Until the pandemic, he said, the parish had a children’s choir with some 40 members who sang once a month.

“People were amazed at their command of the music,” Sam Pellegrino said.

Sacred Heart Parish is growing, Ordos said, and “we’re seeing growth in people returning to Mass.”

Nearly 30 children and adults — ages 18 to 70 — are studying to join the church, said Deacon Ronnie San Nicolas, who is assigned to Sacred Heart. Three couples want their marriages convalidated, he added. 

“We’ve witnessed a really wonderful gift this year in terms of numbers,” Deacon San Nicolas said.

Archbishop Paul D. Etienne poses with parishioners of Sacred Heart Parish in Lacey on the occasion of the parish’s centennial celebration. (Photo: Stephen Brashear)

To mark the parish centennial, Archbishop Paul D. Etienne celebrated Mass at Sacred Heart Church Sept. 24.

He acknowledged the Benedictine monks and priests at St. Martin’s Abbey who “really ushered in the faith into this part of the state,” where it took root and grew. And he expressed gratitude to Sacred Heart’s parishioners for their faith, calling it “a gift that you all have received with open hearts ... and are sharing with free and open hearts. And sharing it evidentially in a way that it’s taking root.”

The church was full during the Sept. 24 Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Lacey. “It’s the temple of God, the people of God, the faithful. That’s what we’re celebrating today,” Archbishop Paul D. Etienne said in his homily. (Stephen Brashear)

People get attached to their church buildings, “and rightly so,” Archbishop Etienne said. “But would that we be more attached to this truth that St. Paul speaks of, that we are the temple of God,” he added. “God dwells in you, in your person. And when we come together, he dwells in us.”

“It’s the temple of God, the people of God, the faithful. That’s what we’re celebrating today,” the archbishop said.

“Don’t let the celebration end here,” he added, but carry the Gospel into the world.

“Others did that so that it arrived in this area. And now we must do that so that it continues to spread,” Archbishop Etienne said. “This is what it means to be the body of Christ, the people of God, a temple holy in the eyes of God.”