REGINA | 147
The church and the adjoining residence had been totally abandoned since 2006. The condition of the property was appalling. Once a building ceases to be heated, it immediately begins to fall into disrepair.
Dampness penetrates every facet of the structure: First, the paint chips, and then the plaster falls. For Sacred Heart Church, the heating system itself became non-functional after six years of neglect and disuse.
The roof of the attached residence had major leaks, which affected two stories of the building, and the broken gutters to broken windows. A tree was growing in one of the confessionals.
REGINA: How has the renovation progressed?
Canon Wulfran Lebocq: Our first step was to replace the statue of the Sacred Heart above the entrance.
We then had the water turned on again and tried to clean up a bit. Next, we repaired the major leaks of the roofs and the gutters, for stopping any further damage was crucial to our restoration plans.
As soon as we began offering Holy Mass in the Church, we obtained temporary pews for the faithful. We also had to procure everything else necessary for Divine Worship.
Before the original sacristy could be rendered even marginally suitable, it was necessary to use one of the rare dry rooms of the residence as a makeshift sacristy.
Again, both the church and residence were without a functioning heating system, so during most of the first year we attempted to find a solution to this fundamental problem, but to no practical avail.
Finally, by the fall of 2013 the old radiators in the church were reconnected with a new temporary boiler, providing much welcomed warmth for the liturgies and visits to Sacred Heart this past winter.
Now we have also completely restored the sacristy, fabricated a laundry room in the residence, replaced several copper gutters, and redone the pointing on the brick exterior.