Sacred Heart Catholic Church: Celebrating 75 years of middle Georgia ministry

Established in September of 1945, Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Warner Robins has reached a milestone of 75 years of ministry. Its first mass was held in the church’s USO Hall with an altar built out of a combination of boards and stacked Coke crates. None of the original founders are still alive and active with the parish, according to Katee Dugas, one of the church’s volunteers, but Sacred Heart still has members from the first generation of those founders.

“There’s a lot of history here, and I’ve been here for a lot of it,” Dugas shared. “I’ve been a member for over 39 years. What I love most about what I do is that it allows me to serve and interact with the community. My children live elsewhere, and I have no other family anywhere, so this is my home, and this is my family.”

Dugas was around for much of the church’s growth over the last few decades. Until they could build an edifice that could house the expanding crowd, they had to make do with the space they had, and she was hands-on wherever needed.

“When we started having mass in the gymnasium in the 90s because we had outgrown the main church, I was part of the three-man team that would come in every Saturday night, set up elevated platforms, an altar and 1,000 chairs,” she recalled. “We’d come back the next morning, have mass, and the team would take everything back down. A lot of textiles—banners, altar covers and all kinds of things—were used to make the gymnasium look more like a church. We had to be very creative.”

Father Fred Nijem now carries the title of Pastor Emeritus, but for 28 years, he served as Sacred Heart’s pastor. He was leading the flock at the time they transitioned from the second location into the edifice where they now worship.

“It’s definitely been a growing church,” said Nijem. “It grew right along with Warner Robins and the Air Force base. We now have three standing churches—each one doubling the size of the congregation.” Nijem shared that Robins Air Force Base is a key reason why the church is blessed to have such a diverse group of followers. “Many races, many cultures and many people from all over the world worship here,” he said. “I feel blessed to have been [pastor] for as long as I was, and I feel blessed to see this day celebrating 75 years come.”

The parish’s current pastor is Father Stephen Pontzer. Though he’s only led Sacred Heart for just over a year, he has been in the priesthood for 12 years. In sharing his thoughts, Pontzer described the opportunity to be serving as priest during the celebration of 75 years as “exciting.”

“We have a beautiful oak tree on the lawn that’s probably over 500 years old,” he pointed out. “It reminds us of the past 75 years. On Sunday, we’ll be planting another one parallel to the old one that will signify the next 75 years.” Sharing more of what is set to happen during Sunday’s celebration, Pontzer revealed, “We’ll be having events for the kids and events for the adults. The event will be held outdoors so more people can attend. We will be celebrating mass with the new Bishop (Bishop Stephen D. Parkes) who was just ordained on yesterday (Wednesday),” Pontzer said. “It’s kind of a celebration of what we’ve been able to do here in the community.”

Gabrielle Monbeck keeps the records for the church and serves as a Spanish teacher for the church’s school. She has an especially deep appreciation for Sacred Heart because although this is her first year serving in both capacities, she has spent practically her entire life in the ministry.

“I went to Sacred Heart from Sunday school all the way through high school. When I got to high school, I became a part of the youth group here,” Monbeck shared. “I left for a little bit to attend college at a Catholic university. After I graduated, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, so I came home and saw that there was a need in the church office and the school. Sacred Heart has given so much to me over the years that I wanted to give a small part of my time back to the church. To me, this is my family.”

Over the years, as the church reached a greater level of diversification, the need to create ministries increased. Roberto and Elisa Martinez Perez started the church’s Hispanic ministry 30 years ago.

“I was the first coordinator for 12 years,” Elisa disclosed. “I’ve seen this church growing. We started in the old building, moved to the activity center, and then into this one. I really love this church. What I like the most is that this is a diverse church. Everybody is welcome. Being from Puerto Rico, I found my niche here at Sacred Heart. I feel comfortable. The priests are very welcoming. I wouldn’t be any other place.”

Roberto agreed. “I was in the Air Force for 26 years. My last 11 years were spent at Robins. We’ve been here since 1988. Initially, we went to the chapel on base for services, and then we moved to Sacred Heart. That’s when Elisa started the ministry. We work as a couple, so we both worked the ministry. Two years later, I took over the Christian Service Center—our outreach program—and I did that for almost 10 years. I retired and found someone to replace me, but we’re still active in the church. I’ve been with the Hispanic choir from inception. We have seen the changes over the years, and we’ve been a part of everything including the building of this church. I started the Clothes Closet where we serve the people of the community. Seeing that kind of service being offered to the community is what brought me here and it’s what has kept me here.”

The church’s pro-life ministry—Friends for Life—is where Margie Rossi serves as coordinator. “October is Respect Life Month, and we will have a lot of activities,” Rossi informed. “We’re called to respect life from the womb to the grave, so we’ll have a lot of materials to help educate people on that. My husband and I are very excited to be a part of this. We joined Sacred Heart in the early 90s. My husband was a part of the building committee. It’s very exciting that we’ve reached 75 years. We feel very blessed to be a part of this very strong and vibrant faith community.” Rossi went on to say, “There are 91 ministries here at this church, so there are so many ways to get involved and help and serve others and meet other people, as well as to help grow in your faith. We love it here.”

Lay Pastoral Assistant Jean Woodman provided a tour of Sacred Heart, beaming as she pointed out the parish’s magnificent stained glass windows, baptismal pool, and statue of Jesus. Citing that the current edifice has been in existence for 13 years, Woodman said, “I know that, because I’ve been here for about that long, and this was brand new at the time,” she said with a laugh. “My husband and I were in the military, and we were trying to decide whether to go to the base chapel or come to Sacred Heart; we ended up here. We were excited to see such a thriving Catholic church,” Woodman reminisced. “It’s very humbling for us to be here at the church during this 75th anniversary celebration.”

Woodman explained that just before the pandemic hit, the church really began to stress certain topics like social injustice. She said, “Even before we started seeing the negative stuff in the media, we had already talked about it, and we had actually celebrated in our church because we have such a diverse group here. The word, ‘Catholic,’ means universal, and that’s what our church represents. It’s a great honor to be a part of the church. And to be a part of the 75th anniversary of Sacred Heart … well, that’s just humbling.”

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