Catholic parish sues Indianapolis for blocking demolition of deteriorating church
A parish filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Indianapolis’ commissions violated the First Amendment when they blocked the demolition of a former Church.
An Indiana parish filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Dec. 30, alleging that Indianapolis’ preservation commissions violated the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom when they blocked the demolition of the former Holy Cross Catholic Church.
As CatholicVote previously reported, St. Philip Neri Church in Indianapolis announced its intention to demolish the deteriorating church building in 2024, but preservationists and the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association successfully petitioned the city to declare the building to be historic. As a result, the parish is responsible for costly upkeep.
Estimates place repairs between $7.5 and $8.5 million, according to WIBC. The property is valued at $1 million.
“It’s no longer safe to enter and it really is a shell of its former beauty unfortunately,” Father Jeffrey Dufresne, pastor of St. Philip Neri, said in November 2025, according to 13 WTHR, NBC’s central Indiana affiliate.
Holy Cross Parish formally merged with St. Philip Neri in 2014, according to Catholic World Report. The church building, which has not been used in years because of its dilapidated state, is fenced off, and St. Philip Neri currently spends 20% of its annual budget — $80,000 each year — to maintain the site, according to WIBC.
The parish filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana against the Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission and the Metropolitan Development Commission, which it argues are violating the First Amendment, the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, and the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
According to WIBC, St. Philip Neri is asking the court to declare the historic designation unconstitutional, remove the church’s historic landmark status, and award damages for the burden the city imposed on the parish.
The parish is being represented by an Indianapolis attorney as well as Storzer & Associates, a law firm based in Washington, D.C., that specializes in defending religious organizations in conflicts about land use and zoning.
According to WIBC, the attorneys allege that city officials “critiqued and even ridiculed” the Archdiocese of Indianapolis’ canonical judgement that the church should be dismantled.
