The latest round of church closings within the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh includes the iconic St. Ladislaus Church in the Natrona neighborhood of Harrison.

The final Mass was celebrated Thursday, Sept. 29.

But a group has emerged wanting the diocese to keep the building and have it declared a holy shrine by Bishop David Zubik. The group took out a full-page ad in the Sept. 26 edition of the Tribune-Review, Valley News Dispatch edition.

The word “shrine” sometimes can be overused to describe a building or a statue.

According to Cathy Caridi, canon law columnist for the Catholic Exchange, a shrine becomes official when it is declared as such by the local bishop.

National shrines are decided by a national conference of bishops. The Code of Canon Law states that a shrine is a sacred place approved by a bishop and visited by religious pilgrims.

No matter what Zubik decides, it’s a good time to take a look at the history of St. Ladislaus Church.

When Polish immigrant families first settled in Natrona in 1879, they were led by the Jasieki, Pyszczynski, Bonczynski, Czarniecki, Welnicki and Kush families.

Many immigrants were served by beneficiary or benevolent societies, clubs designed to help assist those in finding work, housing and assimilating into American society.

On Dec. 13, 1892, the St. Joseph Beneficiary Society held its first meeting. Because it had no indoor meeting place, the session was held outdoors on Garfield Street. Several months later, the group discussed building a Polish church, according to research done by Charles “Skip” Culleiton for his book “Historical Natrona.”

A delegation of society members traveled to Pittsburgh’s South Side to meet with the Rev. Ladislaus Myszkiewicz, pastor of St. Adalbert Church, who enthusiastically endorsed the idea. He even suggested his first name be used to name the church.

The society leased a 39-foot-by-100-foot lot on Garfield Street from property owner Anton Plewa.

The payment to Plewa was three bushels of potatoes per year.

Fundraisers began a house-to-house campaign in Natrona and Leechburg to collect money for a church building. On Nov. 18, 1893, the dream was realized when St. Ladislaus Church offered its first Mass, delivered in Polish by its namesake, the Rev. Ladislaus Myszkiewicz. The materials were bought with donations, and church members did the construction.

The congregation grew so quickly that a new parish was built on Spruce Street when the church bought six lots from Henry Morgan Brackenridge for $1,800. Brackenridge then donated two more lots on land where a new church, school (opened on May 21, 1911) and rectory were built. The new church was dedicated in September 1904 by Bishop Regis Canevin, for whom Bishop Canevin High School is named.

St. Ladislaus also purchased land for a cemetery in the Natrona Heights section of Harrison on Sept. 17, 1901. It is located along the southbound lane of the Freeport Road/Old Route 28 split. It is adjacent to the St. Joseph Parish cemetery.

The Rev. Edward C. Malisziewski wrote a history of the church in time for its diamond jubilee in 1968.

On Dec. 1, 1992, three Natrona Roman Catholic churches — St. Ladislaus, St. Joseph and St. Mathias — were consolidated to form St. Joseph Parish.

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