Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (New York City)

The parish was founded in 1876 with the Rev. Martin J. Brophy as the first pastor. The congregation first met in the former Plymouth Baptist Church at 487 West 51st Street. Vicar-General Mooney, pastor of the church in the 1890s, was a strong proponent of the parochial school system, as opposed to secular public schools. During a sermon at the dedication to the now closed and demolished St. Rose of Lima Parish School, he "urged his hearers to send their children to the parochial schools, where, he said, the religious instruction they would receive was far more important than the secular instruction they could receive in the public schools." ==Buildings==

It is one of the largest churches in Midtown Manhattan. The congregation was mostly Irish and German. According to the parish history, the cornerstone of the present Victorian Romanesque church building was laid on July 23, 1884, and the finished church building was dedicated by The Most Rev. Michael A. Corrigan, Archbishop of New York, on May 17, 1885. In 1966, the interior of the church was the first in the Archdiocese of New York to be reconfigured after the Second Vatican Council. ==Pastors==

• Rev. Martin J. Brophy (1876-?), first pastor • Rev Msgr. Joachim Beaumont (1997-2009) • Rev. Gabriel Piedrahita (2009- 2021) • Rev. Lorenzo Ato (2021- 2023) ==Sacred Heart of Jesus School==

The parish school was considered for closing by Archbishop Dolan but escaped a decision on 11 January 2011 and is still under review. ==References==