THE FIGHT TO SAVE HOLY ROSARY IS JUST BEGINNING
The Archdiocese of Seattle has decreed that Holy Rosary is to be demolished. We won’t let that happen.
Save Tacoma’s Landmark Church assisted Holy Rosary parishioners in preparing an appeal for hierarchical redress, an official request that Archbishop Etienne reconsider this decision.
We are working on raising funds to save the church, on spreading awareness of the threat to one of Tacoma’s most beautiful buildings, and on enlisting community leaders to aid our fight. Join us!
As of September 2024, we have raised more than $1.6 million!
After almost four years of inactivity and no communication while the Archbishop considered the fate of Holy Rosary Church, on June 2, 2023 the Archbishop issued a new decree to relegate the church to “profane but not sordid use”. This essentially means that the Archdiocese would deconsecrate the church building in preparation for its destruction and the selling of the land.
We were given only ten days to appeal. We did so, and the appeal was immediately rejected by the Archdiocese. We retained a canon lawyer and appealed to Rome.
A response was received from the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Clery in April of 2024 vacating the Archbishop’s decree.
The Archdiocese has taken the opportunity to reexamine the fate of Holy Rosary. The parish of Pope Saint John XXIII, which now has canonical authority over the buildings, has solicited bids for the continuing use of the church campus as a Catholic facility. STLC supported the bid of a group of Catholic laity to purchase and restore.
You can read all of those documents on our Documents, Decrees, and Appeals page.
We ask that you continue to pray that this building may continue to be a beacon of faith, hope, and charity to the people of Western Washington. We pray that the Lord may soften the hearts of those who are responsible for its fate.
For more information on why we are proceeding as we are, please see our Strategy page.
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Text to give the amount you wish to donate to STLC at 1-253-201-1123.
Restoring Our Church
Our Lady of the Holy Rosary is a magnificent Neo-Gothic church in Tacoma Washington, dedicated in 1921.
For nearly a century, the steeple of Holy Rosary has towered above downtown Tacoma. Anyone driving through the city on Interstate 5 has seen this iconic building, which has become a treasured historical monument as well as a center of the Catholic faith in Tacoma.
Time and Tacoma’s weather have not been kind to this grand old lady. Water damage to its brick walls and stone finials has impacted the structure to a point where the building cannot safely be used for worship.
Mission: Restore Tacoma’s 100 year old architectural marvel and revitalize the Holy Rosary parish.
Vision: Involve all aspects of the South Puget Sound community to raise sufficient funds to restore and reopen the Holy Rosary church building at 520 South 30th Street in Tacoma.
Tacoma Community Association dba Save Tacoma’s Landmark Church is a 501(c)(3) corporation. Our EIN is 82-2375235.
Our initial goal was to raise $1 million towards the reconstruction. We reached this goal on January 9 2020!
Further goals are set according to benchmarks described by the Archdiocese in an open meeting on May 29, 2019:
- $2.249 million to conduct repairs and erect scaffolding necessary to reoccupy the church.
- $6.691 million to completely repair the roof and make needed structural repairs.
- $17.6 million to completely restore the church, which includes a complete replacement of the electrical and heating systems.
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