Sacred Heart Catholic Church -- Las Rucias TX
N 26° 03.196 W 097° 45.507
14R E 624201 N 2882173
The beautiful and historic Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Las Rucias, on the Oblate Fathers Historic Trail
Waymark Code: WMPEJD
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 08/18/2015
Views: 1
The Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Las Rucias is also known as the Sacred Heart of Jesus Mission church. It is now one of two missions of the nearby St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish. See here: (
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"Saint Ignatius Church on Military Highway is part of the historic Oblate Trail, a string of churches, chapels and missions built along the meandering Rio Grande River from Brownsville to Roma, Texas. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate would ride on horseback between churches as they tended to the spiritual needs of their people. This parish is comprised of the mother church in Ranchito and two dependent missions: Our Lady of Lourdes in La Paloma and Sacred Heart of Jesus in Las Rusias. The main church in Ranchito was originally a wood chapel built in 1888. The present structure was built in 1934. Sacred Heart of Jesus mission in Las Rusias is built on the site of a civil war battle between Union and Confederate forces.
The basic need for which funding is requested is to ensure a continued pastoral presence at Saint Ignatius of Loyola Parish, which consists of a mother church in Ranchito, Texas and two dependent missions: Our Lady of Lourdes in La Paloma and Sacred Heart in Las Rucias. The stewardship income of the three communities is traditionally very low and the parish has gotten by with diocesan subsidies from the Annual Plan granted by Catholic Extension. This stop gap measure has been sufficient to maintain operations from one year to next but a catechesis of stewardship has never been imparted to the congregation, leading many to believe that the Diocese is responsible for the pastor's living and ministry expenses. A recent construction project at the mother church in Ranchito, Texas has taken a financial toll on the already limited stewardship income, but the project was a necessary one. A new parish hall to serve all three communities was constructed in 2010 and is in continuous use since then."