Hundreds celebrate the long-anticipated payoff
SALISBURY — June 7 was a booming day for the people of Sacred Heart Parish.
After scrimping and saving for over 15 years, parishioners celebrated paying off a $8.9 million mortgage on their church and school – saying goodbye to the debt with a bang during the parish’s patronal feast day party.
“We typically hire a company to set off fireworks on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, but this year we attached the documentation of the mortgage bill to the first firework that was going to get blown up,” said Father John Eckert, pastor.
As the sun set a little after 9 p.m., everyone got ready for the big moment. Father Eckert called on the children who were present: “What is it that St. John Paul II taught us?”
“Do not be afraid!” they cheered.
That was the fireworks professionals’ cue. They fired off the first volley – with the mortgage documents attached.
And that was the end of a multimillion-dollar mortgage the parish had been working to pay off since 2009, when its new church and school were built. The total project, including land, had cost $9.4 million, and monthly loan payments had burdened the parish with tens of thousands of dollars in interest.
Over the first five years of the loan, the parish paid off nearly $3 million of the debt, and progress continued when Father Eckert became pastor in 2014.
“It's been a long time coming, but I’m grateful that we have what we have, and with a lot of wonderful leadership to get us to this point,” Father Eckert said.
Completed in 2009, the new church and school replaced a smaller church that was landlocked in downtown Salisbury. The sprawling 107-acre campus just off Jake Alexander Boulevard encompasses an 800-seat church (quadruple the size of the former church), a thriving school, Good Shepherd Gardens senior living facility, cemetery, and a community garden.
Father John Putnam was pastor when the Salisbury parish made the big move from its old location on Fulton Street, and he had a vision of what the parish could – and needed – to be for the growing Catholic community. He and a team of parishioners set out find a parcel of land where the parish had the space to flourish for decades to come.
Father Putnam said the move was necessary, but difficult because Sacred Heart had been part of the city’s downtown landscape since the late 1800s.
“After a lot of prayer, and what many have seen as some divine intervention, we were able to purchase the land where the present parish property is located,” he recalled. “The vision was to allow the church to be ‘a shining light on the hill.’ The property allowed that vision to be a reality.”
In fact, the entrance road to the property was named Lumen Christi Lane – Latin for “Light of Christ.”
Father Putnam noted that the parish cemetery was the first project started on the new site: with the burial of one of his altar servers who died from cancer at 19.
“His name was Paul Mendez, and I entrusted to him the task of praying for the successful completion of the church and school,” he said.
“I am thrilled that in these past 10 years that Sacred Heart has grown and now been able to pay off the mortgage. It is a tremendous accomplishment and allows the parish to move forward and plan for the future.”
Father Eckert agrees.
“I'm grateful to Father Putnam and the other folks he was relying on to move out there,” he said. “And now I'm grateful that after the past 10 years, we've been able to pay it all off. It's incredible. We have a glorious church, a fantastic school and office building, and beautiful grounds.”
Hundreds of parishioners and friends gathered for the mortgage-burning celebration, including Abbot Placid Solari of Belmont Abbey, Father Matthew Kauth, rector of St. Joseph College Seminary, the Daughters of the Virgin Mother, St. Joseph Sister Joan Pearson, and clergy and seminarians who once served at the parish.
Celebrations began with a vigil Mass followed by the groundbreaking for an on-campus rectory, a barbecue dinner, lively music, dancing and, of course, the fireworks show.
Monica Alfonsi, a Sacred Heart parishioner since 1977, said she thoroughly enjoyed the event and makes a point to attend every year, noting how it has brought together the Spanish- and English-speaking members of the parish.
“Now everyone gets involved. Watching that first firework go up with the mortgage documents was very satisfying,” Alfonsi said. “Everyone cheered and clapped. It was a beautiful moment.”
Father Eckert added, “I've heard about a lot of places burning their mortgage and that sounded nice, but we wanted to go above and beyond and blow the thing up. Paying it off is such a huge relief!”
— Annie Ferguson