By Loretta Fulton

Exactly 25 years after its opening on June 29, 2000, a little chapel next to Sacred Heart Catholic Church will get a big blessing.

On Sunday, June 29, 2025, Bishop Michael Sis of the Diocese of San Angelo will be in Abilene for the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Perpetual Adoration Chapel. The chapel was a dream of Monsignor Robert N. Bush, longtime pastor of Sacred Heart. Bush, 81, died on Jan 17, 2025. He was pastor of Sacred Heart for 23 years, from 1996 to 2019.

Monsignor Robert Bush

Bush knew how important a 24-hour chapel was to a community, based on his years in Odessa, where he was priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. The parish sponsored a similar chapel in Odessa, and Bush saw firsthand how it could be a lifesaver for a person in distress. When he moved to Abilene in 1996, he brought that vision with him. A story in the Abilene Reporter-News from 2000 announced the opening of the chapel, sponsored by Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Bush emphasized that the chapel would be for the entire community, not just Catholics.

“We hope to be a blessing to the whole town,” he said. 

Views of Perpetual Adoration Chapel next to Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

The chapel is located in a building that once was home to Green Electric Shop. After extensive renovation, the chapel seats 32 people and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Blessed Sacrament is exposed for adoration at all times. 

“Mainly it’s just a place for people to go and pray and be close to the Lord,” Bush said in the 2000 story in the Abilene Reporter-News. 

Loretta Fulton is creator and editor of Spirit of Abilene