Faustino Gonzales, 76, has lived within a few blocks of the church for most of his life. He attended the parish school, and so did his children. Now, his granddaughter is in the second grade there. “I was married here,” he said. “Wonderful thing. Beautiful.”

His daughter is decades removed from her years as an elementary student, yet he can still remember the letter he wrote to her for one of her class assignments. It was about Sacred Heart. “I’d trade my hunting rifle, my car, even my house,” he recalled writing. “But my childhood and years at Sacred Heart — I’d never, ever.”