Impact of the fire on the Sacred Heart Community

The destruction by fire on December 25, 2004 of the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church was a severe blow for the parishioners of the Sacred Heart Community.
Our community is bordered to the east by Cummings Street, the north by the Seawall and South by Church Street. The loss of the church affected the community both physically and emotionally. Parishioners lost not only a place of worship, but many of its outreach programmes were severely affected. The adjoining primary school was also lost to the fire displacing the students who attended the school.
Since the destruction of the school, many of the students share space with the
children at St Mary’s Primary School.

The Sacred Heart community want to see their church rebuilt, the people of Guyana long to have the majestic Church adorn Main Street once again.
Our efforts to ensure we remain a parish and to have our church rebuilt has revitalized the community and we will continue to endeavour in a peaceful and dignified way to ensure that Sacred Heart rises from the ashes to its former glory.

History - Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church

The first Maderians  came to Guyana in 1835, by 1857 when the Jesuit Fathers arrived their number should have been over 24,000 but Yellow Fever and Malaria had greatly reduced that total. In 1861 instead of 26,760 Portuguese there were only 9,859.

These Jesuits felt isolated from the rest of the population owing to their ignorance of the English language. Even to practice their religion (Catholic) they had some difficulty, since for the benefit of the ordinary congregation, sermons, instructions devotions had to be in English. One mass in the Cathedral (Brickdam) was reserved for them.

Fr. Benedict Schembri S.J (1874/1898) earned the title of their Apostle. He argued that they needed special treatment for a number of year; they should be given the devotions and services to which hey had grown accustomed in their own country; sermons in their own language, their old time ‘festa’ should be made available for them. Bishop Ethridge agreed and allowed for them to have their own special chapel.