Local legend has it that this huge and glorious church was meant to be the cathedral of a new Catholic diocese. In old Pa Pitt’s experience, similar legends arise wherever a Catholic church seems unusually magnificent. These particular legends may have more basis than most, because a new diocese was under consideration in western Pennsylvania when this church was going up in 1963. However, the Sharon Historical Society asked the archivist at the Diocese of Erie, Fr. Justin Pino, who says that the idea was always referred to as “the proposed Butler diocese.” At any rate, it didn’t happen, and Sharon is still in the Diocese of Erie.
But a diocese would be proud to have a cathedral like this. It was designed by the Cleveland firm of Stickle & Associates, and it reminds us that there was a time when modernism could be exciting and inspiring.
