Two ornate altars that graced St. Ladislaus Church in Natrona for more than 100 years will be used again for prayer — across the globe on the South Pacific island of Tonga.

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the town of Nukualofa acquired the cream-colored altars, a baptismal font, candleholders and two tabernacles from Guardian Angels Parish, which closed five of its seven churches in 2022.

The items will find their new home after a 7,415-mile journey by tractor-trailer and cargo ship.

“We will pack up a semi and drive to San Francisco. From there, items will board a ship and sail for one month to Tonga,” said Navi Uhatafe, the agent from the Immaculate Conception church who coordinated the move.

“A crew of us will fly over and attempt to put this puzzle back together,” he said.

The average nonstop flight from the United States to Tonga takes more than a day, or about 31 hours.

Tom Babinsack, administrator of Guardian Angels, said the connection between the two churches was made by word-of-mouth with help from the internet.

“By talking to people and seeing items we posted online, they reached out and expressed their interest,” he said.

Babinsack said the parish is thrilled the items will be repurposed rather than destroyed.

“We had no purpose for them,” he said. “They might have sat in storage for who knows how long.”

Crews dismantled two altars, decorated with green and gold roses, which towered more than 30 feet. They were original to St. Lad’s from 1903.

Crews also took two statues of St. Joseph from St. Lad’s, candleholders from Holy Martyrs in Tarentum, a baptismal font from Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Harrison and tabernacles from Holy Family in East Deer and St. Alphonsus in Springdale.

“All we asked was a fair and just donation,” Babinsack said.

The amount was not disclosed.

For five days, from June 12-16, Uhatafe and his four-man crew deconstructed the domed sanctuary at St. Lad’s along Spruce Street.

They ran into some obstacles during the labor, mainly that the altars were modified in the 1960s with stucco. It made it incredibly difficult to cleanly dismantle the pieces.

“They’re usually always wood. The stucco doesn’t want to come off,” Uhatafe said. “We’ll have to rebuild the altars in Tonga. It could take awhile because it isn’t easy to get wood there. It’s just a tiny island.”

Uhatafe intends to keep in touch with Guardian Angels leaders and send photos when the altar is situated in the Tongan cathedral, which serves as the seat of the Diocese of Tonga and was created in 1966 by Pope Paul VI.

While some parishioners said they appreciate the furniture being used for good, others are not happy about it.

“I feel like it’s the destruction of a beautiful church,” said Conrad Zylinski, who lives across the street. “It doesn’t make me feel good for the aspect that the interior was scavenged.”

He and a small group of others petitioned the Diocese of Pittsburgh when St. Lad’s was closed, hoping it could transition into a shrine. A banner still hangs on the side of his house to solicit interest in the parish closures.

“I sit on my front steps and look right at the church, and it’s a strange feeling,” Zylinski said. “I didn’t even want to go in and look at what they did.”

Babinsack, who grew up down the street and attended St. Lad’s his whole life, said he finds comfort in knowing the pieces will be loved in a new home.

“They’re beautiful pieces, and they mean a lot to everyone,” he said. “The way it all happened and unfolded, just by talking to people and connections being made, it’s incredible.”

Uhatafe, a lifelong parishioner of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, considers it a miracle.

“Our church is named for the mother of God, and the first thing I see when I walk in here are the roses all over the altar for Mary,” he said. “It is a glorious mystery how this all happened.”

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