WADESBORO — A gift started by three sisters has blossomed into a fund that since its inception has provided more than $17 million in 74 interest-free loans to under-resourced parishes and missions throughout the Diocese of Charlotte.
Sarah Horne Sutherland, Elizabeth Wallace Horne and Mary Virginia Horne shared a faith and a pioneering generosity that has helped grow the Catholic Church in western North Carolina since Mary Virginia passed in 1975. Over the course of the next two decades, each of the sisters left estate gifts of more than $1 million to the diocese.
Their father, James Dudley Horne, was a prominent Baptist businessman. Their mother, Sarah Divine Horne, was a Catholic at a time when the faith had only a limited presence in Anson County. After inheriting the family’s Wadesboro cotton farm in 1950, the sisters used their considerable wealth and sharp business skills to continue their mother’s mission of spreading the Catholic faith throughout the Piedmont.
The family began that legacy by helping to build a church. Growing tired of the challenging 25-mile commute to the nearest parish – St. James Church in Hamlet – the family approached the late Bishop Vincent Waters, the bishop of North Carolina at the time, about building and funding a new church. Sacred Heart Mission in Wadesboro was the result of that idea.
Spiritan Father Ed Vilkauskas, former pastor of Sacred Heart Mission and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Monroe, told the Catholic News Herald in 1995 that the sisters built Sacred Heart “hook, line and sinker.”
“They took intense personal interest in their projects and wanted things to be done ‘the right way,’” he said.
“They had a dream, hope and vision, and faith enough to invest in the future of the Church,” he said. Father Vilkauskas passed away in 2021.
At the time of Sutherland’s passing in 1995, former Bishop William G. Curlin said of the three sisters, “They were magnificent benefactors to the diocese and pioneers for the Catholic Church.”
The Horne sisters also donated their personal homes and furnishings to the diocese and established the Virginia Horne Residence Hall at Belmont Abbey College.
Today, the Horne Fund they established continues to help parishes address routine maintenance needs and facility improvements that otherwise might fall through the cracks.
Matt Ferrante, chief financial officer for the diocese, said many Horne Fund loans fund projects such as HVAC replacements or parking lot lighting upgrades.
“On occasion, it’s for larger projects, such as renovations to a sanctuary, church building or other parish facilities,” Ferrante said. “The fund helps them pay for it over time with no interest.”
Many of the once-small parishes initially helped by the funds have gone on to thrive, including St. Mark in Huntersville.
“Over the last 40 years, we have talked with almost 1,900 individuals who have either left an estate gift when they passed or are leaving a gift in their estate to benefit one of the entities in our diocese. Never before have we had three siblings all decide to each leave an estate gift to one of our entities,” said Jim Kelley, the diocese’s development director.
“I had the good fortune early in my tenure at the diocese to talk with both Elizabeth and Sarah,” Kelley said. “Having established a small church in Wadesboro, they wanted other small church communities to benefit by their gifts. Because the Horne Fund provides interest-free loans that churches must pay back, their gifts will benefit churches in our diocese for many generations to come. We encourage more individuals to think about our small financially challenged parishes and consider a way they can help them in their estate plans also.”
— Courtney McLaughlin
Fund an endowment
Interested in setting up – or adding to – an endowment to benefit your parish or Catholic school?
You can establish an endowment in the Diocese of Charlotte Foundation by leaving a bequest in a will, a beneficiary designation from a retirement plan, a trust or annuity, or a gift of real estate, life insurance, cash or securities.
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