Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church is a former

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

parish in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

, within the

Archdiocese of Seattle ''Formerly known as Diocese of Nesqually, 1850-1907.'' The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church ( particularly the Roman Catholic or Latin Church) located in the U.S. state of ...

. The church is a landmark of the city seen by travelers along

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Califor ...

. The parish was established in 1891 by Bishop

Egidius Junger Egidius Jünger, also spelled Aegidius Jünger (April 6, 1833 – December 26, 1895), was a German-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Nesqually in the Washington Territory in the United States from ...

when he invited

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monks from St. John's Abbey in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

to serve Tacoma's German-speaking population. The parish remained under the pastorship of the Benedictine monks until 1998. The current church building was built in 1920 after the original wooden church was deemed unsafe. In 2018, the church building sustained water damage and sheetrock from the ceiling fell onto the choir loft and back pews. The building was deemed unsafe and masses were moved into the parish school auditorium. As the parish could not afford the $18 million necessary to repair the building, Archbishop

J. Peter Sartain James Peter Sartain (born June 6, 1952), better known as Peter Sartain, is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the fifth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle in Washington State from 2010 to 2019. He previously ...

decreed in 2019 that the century-old church building be razed. The parish school moved to

Fife, Washington Fife is a city in Pierce County, Washington, United States and a suburb of Tacoma. The population was 10,999 at the 2020 census. Fife is contained within the Puyallup Indian Reservation. History The lower Puyallup basin is the ancestral home ...

, in 2020, as part of the parish's planned merge with St. Martin of Tours Parish. As the future of the parish was deemed unviable, Archbishop Paul D. Etienne ordered all services and ministries of the parish to cease at the end of August 2020. On July 1, 2021, Holy Rosary Parish was amalgamated and merged into neighboring St. Ann Parish. One year later, St. Ann Parish was merged with Visitation Parish and St. Rita of Cascia Parish to form a new merged parish named Pope St. John XXIII Parish.

References

External links

Holy Rosary Bilingual AcademySave Tacoma's Landmark Church campaign
{{coord, 47.23345762710453, N, 122.43949039168976, W, format=dms, display=title, type:edu_region:US-WA Roman Catholic churches in Washington (state) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle Churches in Tacoma, Washington 1891 establishments in Washington (state) 2021 disestablishments in Washington (state) Roman Catholic churches completed in 1920 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States