INDIANAPOLIS — A fight over whether an abandoned Indianapolis church should be demolished or stay standing as part of a neighborhood's cherished history is set to go before the city next week.

Holy Cross Catholic Church, which is over 100 years old, has been closed for nearly 10 years.

The church where hundreds of Catholic faithful on Indy's near east side once gathered to pray, get married, and baptize their babies, now sits a fence with signs warning trespassers not to enter.

The church has seen better days.

"It's no longer safe to enter and it really is a shell of its former beauty unfortunately," said Father Jeffrey Dufresne with St. Philip Neri Catholic Church.

When Holy Cross Church closed, its parish merged with St. Philip Neri, which took over Holy Cross's property and decided

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