History

Parish History of Sacred Heart Church:

Established 1878  More than 800 households

Sacred Heart Church 1878

In 1878, the first Mass in rustic Bloomfield, a land of tobacco and farms, was said by Father Joseph Reid of St. Joseph Cathedral, Hartford, of which Bloomfield was a mission. Father Reid was succeeded by Father William Harty who built a church on Woodland Avenue in 1878. Bishop Thomas Galberry blessed the cornerstone of Sacred Heart Mission, and later Bishop Lawrence S. McMahon dedicated the finished edifice.

In 1881, Bloomfield became the mission of St. Bernard, Tariffville. At the turn of the century, Father John T. Downey of the newly created St. Michael parish in Hartford ministered to Bloomfield. In 1924 when Father Francis P. Nolan built St. Justin Church in Hartford, Sacred Heart became its mission. In 1934, Sacred Heart reverted again to the care of St. Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield.

Finally, in 1947, Sacred Heart mission became a parish with Father Harold F. Daly as first resident pastor. Ground was broken on May 13, 1962, for a new church and school, staffed by the Sisters of Charity from Baltic. Sacred Heart Church and School was dedicated on April 27, 1963, by Archbishop Henry J. O’Brien. Unfortunately, the school was forced to close in June 1988, and the building was converted into a Family Life Center.

Sacred Heart Church 1920 © Wintonbury Historical Society

In 1995, Father Joseph DiSciacca was named Parochial Vicar of both Christ The King Church and Sacred Heart Church. Shortly

thereafter, with the closing of Christ The King Church he was named pastor of the now expanded Sacred Heart Church. Among his early initiatives was the institution of a periodic parish newsletter called “A GATHERING”, now in its fifteenth year of publication.

In 1999 Father DiSciacca was transferred to Meriden and Father Aidan Donahue, President at St. Thomas Seminary, was appointed Administrator and later Pastor. Father Donahue strengthened and expanded the parish committee structure, stressing the involvement of the laity in the daily activities of the parish.

Father Donahue was appointed pastor of St. Mary Parish in Milford in January 2012 and Father Collins Anaeche was named Administrator at Sacred Heart Church.

Father Collins Anaeche was appointed Administrator of St. Bernard Church in Tariffville in July 2015 and Monsignor Douglas Clancy from St. Bridget and Helena parishes in West Hartford was named Pastor at Sacred Heart Church.