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St. Philip Neri Catholic Church, which oversees the Holy Cross Church property on the near-east side of Indianapolis, is arguing in a federal lawsuit that the city’s steps to preserve the century-old structure infringe upon the church’s First Amendment right to religious freedom.
In a complaint filed Tuesday, the church is asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana to reverse decisions made in recent years by the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission and the city’s Metropolitan Development Commission and declare them unconstitutional.
St. Philip Neri Catholic Church said in a press release that the boards’ October vote to prohibit the church from razing Holy Cross, the namesake of its east-side neighborhood, “intruded on St. Philip Neri Catholic Church’s religious exercise and violated its religious autonomy.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Metropolitan Development, which oversees the activities of the both the Historic Preservation Commission, or IHPC, and the Metropolitan Development Commission, or MDC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.
The Holy Cross Church campus, 125 N. Oriental St., has sat empty since 2019. Father Jeffrey Dufresne, St. Philip Neri’s pastor, estimated in October that with the combined cost estimates for masonry, structural work and interior improvements, restoring the church would cost $7.5 million to $8.5 million and would boost the estimated sales price for the property only about $100,000, to about $1.1 million. Instead, Dufresne said the church aimed to sell the land without the church structure.
The campus includes four buildings: an Italian Renaissance church building known for its 136-foot-tall bell tower, an attached rectory, a gymnasium and a school building. The oldest building, the school, was constructed in 1902. The newest, the gymnasium, was built in 1948.
The church’s front portico, or archway, collapsed in 2015. The Archdiocese of Indianapolis in 2019 removed the stained glass windows that adorned the church, which the preservation’s report notes were crafted in Zurich. Artifacts from Holy Cross, including the windows, are now in other Catholic churches across the state.
Without the option of demolishing and selling the property, the church alleges in its complaint that the city panels’ actions require it to “either maintain [the property] at great expense, or find a buyer for the church building and accept the risk that in the future the building could be put to forbidden use in violation of Roman Catholic laws, rules, regulations and doctrine.”
The church’s goal of tearing down the decaying building was first thwarted when the IHPC, and then later the MDC, designated the property as a historic landmark in March 2024.
The designation meant that St. Philip Neri could not take any action on the property without the approval of the IHPC. That allowed the IHPC to deny the church’s request earlier this year to demolish the church and attached rectory.
Along with declaring these decisions unconstitutional, the church asks that the court reverse the historic designation and prohibit both boards from applying land-use regulations that it alleges violate state and federal laws, including the Religious Land Use And Institutionalized Persons Act and those governing individual property rights.
St. Philip Neri also demands to be paid unspecified damages.
The church requested a judicial review of the commission’s decision in late October. A spokesperson for the church told IBJ it withdrew that state-level appeal to pursue federal action.
St. Philip Neri Catholic Church is represented by Indianapolis attorney Michael A. Swift of Maginot, Moore & Beck LLP, and by Washington, D.C.-based Storzer & Associates, P.C.
Storzer, a firm specializing in religious freedom cases, was also involved in a 2010 lawsuit centered on the city’s historic designation of St. John United Church of Christ, a behemoth structure at the corner of East Washington Street and German Church Road in Cumberland that still stands vacant today.
In that case, the parties reached a settlement that required city leaders to work with Indiana Landmarks to find a buyer within six months. When that time period passed with no offers, the city was forced to rescind the designation.
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