For many years just before after the turn of the century, Catholics in the Villa Grove area were cared for by the pastors of Arcola, Paris, and Hume. Then on June 1, 1906, Father William Quatman was appointed pastor of Tuscola and Villa Grove. The new priest proceeded at once to direct the construction of a frame church naming it in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Father Quatman and his successors, Father August Hohl, Father Joseph Jordan, and Father James Casey celebrated Sunday Mass there along with other Sacraments until 1949. During that time, Bishop O’Connor established it as a parish, and Father Raymond Franzen was appointed the first resident pastor. The church purchased and refurbished the nearby house for a rectory that same year while Father Franzen made his home with Mr. & Mrs. John Cabalek.
In 1956 a stone parish hall was built under the direction of Father Franzen. Three years later Father Thomas Davenport was appointed pastor. Shortly after that plans were made to construct a new church, joining it to the parish hall. Father Davenport celebrated the last Mass in the wooden building on April 23, 1962. The church furnishings were moved the same day to the parish hall which became the temporary church. Soon after the 56-year-old house of God was torn down with work beginning immediately on the present structure, a contemporary work of architecture with an Indiana Limestone exterior and an interior finished with buff brick and arched black beams, showing against the wood ceiling. Bishop Williams A. O’Conner on May 26, 1963, dedicated the new brick church at Villa Grove.
In 1969, Father Davenport accepted another parish and was followed by Father Joseph Kromenaker who served as pastor of Sacred Heart as well as St. Michael’s in Hume and St. Thomas Aquinas in Brocton, in 1969. In 1971 Father G.R. McCaughey was appointed Administrator of the parish. Two years later Bishop O’Connor named Father Walter M. Weerts the pastor of the church. Since the appointment of Father McCaughey, all three churches have been served by Fathers Walter M. Weerts, James O’Shea, Michael Kuse, Joseph Diezel, Michael Jenkins, Charles Mulcrone, and Father Paul Skelton. Father Skelton was assigned to Sacred Heart in February 1987 and served the parish for twenty-eight years until 2015. After his retirement, Father Skelton resided at the rectory for a short period.
After Father Skelton’s retirement in 2015, Father Angel Sierra was assigned to Sacred Heart Parish in 2015 and also served as the pastor of Tuscola and Arcola. On July 1st, 2016, Father Aloysius Ndeanaefo, a Nigerian-born American priest ordained for the Catholic Diocese of Springfield was assigned to Sacred Heart, Villa Grove, and St. Michael’s, Hume. Father Ndeanaefo lived at St. Michael’s Hume apartment for a short period as the rectory and the church at Villa Grove was being renovated. The newly renovated rectory was completed in the second week of August 2016 and was opened up a few weeks later for an open house.