Sacred Heart Church has been blessed with having these great priests who had been made priests in the likeness of God’s own priesthood. Through their ministry, God consecrated them, anointed them, filled them with the Holy Spirit, appointed them to teach, to preach, to minister, to console, to forgive, and to feed us with Your Body and Blood. Let us remember them always:
Rev. E. Nelz, OMI | 1911 |
Rev. A. Naessens, OMI | 1911-1914 |
Rev. A. Jan, OMI | 1914-1915 |
Rev. Msgr. Arthur J. Hetherington | 1915- 1963 |
Rev. Reginald Sullivan | 1963-1971 |
Rev. Duncan T. Sullivan | 1971-1975 |
Msgr. John O’Brien | 1972-1977 |
Rev. William Stephenson | 1972-1982 |
Msgr. Joseph LeFort | 1982- 1990 |
Bishop Eugene Cooney | 1990-1996 |
Rev. Edward Flanagan | 1996-2000 |
Rev. Patrick Cramer | 2000-2001 |
Rev. Edmund Vargas | 2001-2016 |
Rev. John Gannon, LC | 2016–2022 |
Fr. Rowel Jose (Arjay) Abanto | 2022- |
Say a prayer regularly for our priests, using the words of St. Therese of Lisieux who entrusted priests to the Sacred Heart of Jesus:
O Jesus, eternal Priest,
keep your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart,
where none may touch them.
Keep unstained their anointed hands,
which daily touch Your Sacred Body.
Keep unsullied their lips,
daily purpled with your Precious Blood.
Keep pure and unearthly their hearts,
sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.
Let Your holy love surround them and
shield them from the world’s contagion.
Bless their labors with abundant fruit and
may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation
here and in heaven their beautiful and
everlasting crown.
Amen.