The Diocese of Gary ( la, Dioecesis Gariensis) is a

Latin Church , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Jo ...

ecclesiastical territory or

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associ ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

in northwest

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It was founded on December 17, 1956, by

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

. Its ecclesiastic territory includes

Lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

, Porter, LaPorte, and Starke counties. The mother church of the diocese is the Cathedral of the Holy Angels in

Gary, Indiana Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along th ...

. The Diocese of Gary is one of four

suffragan diocese A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandri ...

s in the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian Churches with traditional hierarchical structure, including Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. In general, an ecclesiastical province consists of sev ...

of the

metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

History

During the first half of the 20th century, many

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

immigrants came from

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whi ...

and

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to work in the region's growing steel industry. A number of parishes were founded near the steel mills so that the newly arrived immigrants could celebrate

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...

in their native languages. In 1956 the four counties of

, Porter, LaPorte, and Starke belonged to the 18 county diocesan territory of the then named Diocese of Fort Wayne. On December 17, 1956, the region was stunned to learn of the announcement that came from they Holy See that a new diocese was to be erected from those four counties in Northwest Indiana and the newly created Diocese of Gary came into existence. On December 29, 1956,

announced that he had named then Reverend Andrew Gregory Grutka, pastor of Holy Trinity parish, to be the first bishop of the new Gary diocese. The parish of the Holy Angels was selected to become the new cathedral for the diocese, and became the Cathedral of the Holy Angels. The new diocese, at its establishment, found itself with 129 active diocesan priests, 77 parishes, 60 parish schools and 135,485 Catholics, which was roughly 25 percent of the population of the four counties. As of 2012, four parishes in the diocese still offered Mass in Polish, two parishes in Croatian, one in Hungarian, and one in Lithuanian. Fourteen parishes also offered Mass in Spanish. One location offered the 1962 form of the Roman-Rite Mass.

Diocese today

Serving the diocese are 105

priests A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

, 67 permanent

deacons A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

, 10 religious brothers, and 85 religious sisters who are members of various

religious institute A religious institute is a type of institute of consecrated life in the Catholic Church whose members take religious vows and lead a life in community with fellow members. Religious institutes are one of the two types of institutes of consecrat ...

s. These priests, deacons and persons religious serve a Catholic population in northwest Indiana of 186,420 in 73

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

es and missions. The diocese also operates several educational, medical, and social service organizations. Educational institutions include 17 elementary schools, 3 high schools, 1 college, and a Catholic student center at Valparaiso University. The diocese also supervises six hospitals or medical centers, three homes for the aged, three protective homes, three cemeteries, and Catholic Charities, Diocese of Gary. On April 25, 2019, Pope Francis appointed Gary Bishop Donald J. Hying Bishop of Madison and on November 26, 2019,

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013 ...

appointed Detroit, Michigan priest Robert John McClory to succeed him. He was both consecrated and installed as Bishop on February 11, 2020.

Bishops

* Andrew Gregory Grutka (Appointed bishop on December 29, 1956. Retired on July 9, 1984. Bishop Grutka died on November 11, 1993.) * Norbert Felix Gaughan (Appointed bishop July 9, 1984. Retired on June 1, 1996. Bishop Gaughan died on October 1, 1999.) * Dale Joseph Melczek (Appointed

Apostolic Administrator An Apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic adm ...

on August 19, 1992 after Bishop Gaughan suffered a stroke, then

coadjutor bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) is a bishop in the Catholic, Anglican, and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in the administration of the diocese. The coadjutor (literally, "co- ...

on October 28, 1995. Succeeded as diocesan bishop on June 1, 1996. Retired on November 24, 2014. Bishop Melczek died on August 25, 2022.) * Donald J. Hying (Appointed on November 24, 2014. He served until April 25, 2019, when he was appointed 5th Bishop of

Diocese of Madison The Diocese of Madison ( la, Diœcesis Madisonensis) is a Roman Catholic diocese in the U.S. State of Wisconsin. It comprises Columbia, Dane, Grant, Green, Green Lake, Iowa, Jefferson, Lafayette, Marquette, Rock, and Sauk counties. The ...

.) * Robert John McClory (Appointed bishop on November 26, 2019. Installed on February 11, 2020.)

Other diocesan priest who became bishop

* Carl Frederick Mengeling, appointed 4th Bishop of Lansing (served as diocesan bishop from November 7, 1995 until his retirement on February 27, 2008).

Education

The Superintendent of Catholic Schools is Dr. Joseph Majchrowicz, Ed.D.

Elementary schools

Parishes run the following elementary and middle schools within the diocese: (Note: No school is in the city of Gary) *St. Patrick, Chesterton *St. Mary Catholic Community School, Crown Point *St. Stanislaus, East Chicago *St. Mary, Griffith *St. Casimir, Hammond *St. John Bosco, Hammond *Our Lady of Grace, Highland *Aquinas School at St. Andrew's, Merrillville *Notre Dame, Michigan City *Queen of All Saints, Michigan City *St. Stanislaus Kostka, Michigan City *St. Thomas More, Munster *Nativity of Our Savior, Portage *St. John the Evangelist, St. John *St. Michael, Schererville *St. Paul Catholic, Valparaiso *St. John the Baptist, Whiting St. Catherine of Siena, a Catholic elementary school in Hammond, opened prior to 1949. Prior to 2009 its enrollment had declined, with 130 students that year, and its financial state had deteriorated. The school closed in 2009.

Secondary schools

Operated by Diocese

* Bishop Noll Institute * Andrean High School * Marquette Catholic High School

Independent

* Sacred Heart Apostolic School * La Lumiere School

Colleges

* Calumet College of St. Joseph

Extraordinary Form

, the only Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite in the diocese is offered at the Carmelite Shrine in

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following t ...

on Saturday evenings. It was established on Saturday, August 25, 1990, at the recommendation of Bishop Norbert Gaughan. The Mass was featured in newspapers across the country when ''

Summorum Pontificum ''Summorum Pontificum'' (English: "Of the Supreme Pontiffs") is an apostolic letter of Pope Benedict XVI, issued in July 2007. This letter specifies the circumstances in which priests of the Latin Church could celebrate mass according to what Be ...

'' was promulgated by

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereig ...

. Previously, a Traditional Latin Mass was available at St. Stanislaus in Michigan City on Sundays, but this Mass was discontinued when the celebrant died. St. Joseph the Worker in Gary had a monthly Mass that was a hybrid of the Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms. In 2015, the NWI Latin Mass Community was founded by laity to support and promote the Extraordinary Form in the Gary Diocese, with the particular goals of offering Sunday morning and Holy Day Masses in the Extraordinary Form, as well as fostering parish life for those who are attached to the older form of the Mass. On January 1, 2018, a Solemn High Mass was offered at the Cathedral of the Holy Angels by Bishop Joseph Perry, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Chicago. In 2018, the

Institute of Christ the King The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP; la, Institutum Christi Regis Summi Sacerdotis []; french: Institut du Christ Roi Souverain Prêtre []) is a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life of pontifical right in communion with ...

began an apostolate at St. Joseph parish in Hammond, offering the Extraordinary Form on a weekly basis. St. Joseph parish in Dyer also holds a monthly mass in the Extraordinary Form.

References

External links

Roman Catholic Diocese of Gary NWI Catholic
(Diocese of Gary's weekly newspaper)
NWI Latin Mass Community
{{authority control Culture of Gary, Indiana Christian organizations established in 1956 Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Indianapolis Roman Catholic Dioceses in Indiana Gary Gary