Diocese of Gary

Diocese of Gary Dioecesis Gariensis
File:Cathedral of the Holy Angels in Gary.jpg Cathedral of the Holy Angels
File:Coat of arms of the Diocese of Gary.svg Coat of arms
Location
Country	United States
Territory	The counties of Lake, LaPorte, Porter and Starke in Northwest Indiana
Ecclesiastical province	Indianapolis
Statistics
Area	1,807 sq mi (4,680 km2)
Population Total Catholics	(as of 2021) 795,178 164,293 (20.7%)
Parishes	64
Churches	72
Schools	22
Information
Denomination	Catholic
Sui iuris church	Latin Church
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	December 17, 1956 (69 years ago)
Cathedral	Cathedral of the Holy Angels
Patron saint	Guardian Angels
Secular priests	83
Current leadership
Pope	Leo XIV
Bishop	Robert John McClory
Metropolitan Archbishop	Charles C. Thompson
Vicar General	Very Rev. Christopher Stanish
Judicial Vicar	Very Rev. Brian D. Chadwick
Map
Territory of the Diocese of Gary Territory of the Diocese of Gary
Website
dcgary.org

The Diocese of Gary (Latin: Dioecesis Gariensis) is a diocese of the Catholic Church in northwest Indiana in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Indianapolis. The mother church is the Cathedral of the Holy Angels in Gary, Indiana. The diocese was erected on December 17, 1956. The current bishop of the diocese is Robert J. McClory.

Territory

The Diocese of Gary includes Lake, Porter, LaPorte, and Starke counties in Indiana.

History

1675 to 1800

During the 17th century, present day Indiana was part of the French colony of New France. The Diocese of Quebec, which had jurisdiction over the colony, sent French missionaries to the region. The first French Jesuit missionaries came to the Vincennes area around 1675. Historical records show that a Father Mermet arrived in Vincennes around 1712, but the length of his visit is unknown. The oldest Catholic Church in Vincennes is St. Francis Xavier. established around 1732.

After the British took control of New France in 1763, the Archdiocese of Quebec retained jurisdiction in the Indiana area. In 1776, the new United States claimed sovereignty over the area of Indiana. In 1787, Indiana became part of the Northwest Territory of the United States.

1800 to 1956

With the creation of the Diocese of Bardstown in Kentucky in 1810, supervision of the Indiana Territory shifted there. In 1827, the bishop of the Diocese of St. Louis assumed jurisdiction in the new state of Indiana. In 1834, Pope Gregory XVI erected the Diocese of Vincennes, which included both Indiana and Illinois. Pope Pius IX created the Diocese of Fort Wayne for Indiana only in 1857, including the Gary area. Gary would remain part of this diocese for the next 100 years.

St. Mary the Immaculate Conception parish, founded in 1867, was the first Catholic parish in Michigan City. The first Catholic parish in Gary was Holy Angels, established in 1906. During the first half of the 20th century, many Catholic immigrants arrived in Indiana from Eastern Europe and Mexico to work in the region's growing steel industry. The Diocese of Fort Wayne founded several native language parishes near the steel mills to accommodate these immigrants.

1956 to 2000

In 1956, Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Gary, removing Lake, Porter, LaPorte, and Starke Counties from the Diocese of Fort Wayne. He named Andrew Grutka of Fort Wayne as the first bishop of Gary. Grutka selected Holy Angels church as his cathedral, renaming it as the Cathedral of the Holy Angels. The new diocese had 129 active diocesan priests, 77 parishes, 60 parish schools and 135,485 Catholics, about 25 percent of the population of the four counties. Grutka retired in 1984.

Pope John Paul II appointed Auxiliary Bishop Norbert Gaughan of the Diocese of Greensburg as the second bishop of Gary in 1984. During his tenure as bishop, Gaughan ordained three priests and started a diocesan newspaper, the Northwest Indiana Catholic. In 1986, he established the Catholic Services Appeal. Gaughan created the “We Can Change the Future” program for the creation of pastoral councils. After Gaughan suffered a stroke, the pope named Auxiliary Bishop Dale Melczek of the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1995 as coadjutor bishop to assist Gaughan. When Gaughan retired in 1996, Melczek automatically became bishop of Gary.

2000 to present

File:Dale J. Melczek.jpg

Bishop Melczek (pre-1922)

In 2002, Melczek published “The Many Faces of Our Church:  a Pastoral Letter on Cultural Diversity” to discuss the contributions of different races and cultural groups to the Catholic church. Melczek followed it up the next year with “Created in God’s Image:  a Pastoral Letter on the Sin of Racism and a Call to Conversion.”

After Melczek retired in 2013, Auxiliary Bishop Donald J. Hying of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee became the next bishop. In 2016, Hying called the first synod in Gary with the publication of his pastoral letter, “Go, Therefore, and Make Disciples of All Nations”. He began an initiative in 2017 to focus on evangelization, vocations, and other topics within the diocese.

In 2019, Pope Francis named Hying bishop of the Diocese of Madison and appointed Monsignor Robert McClory of the Archdiocese of Detroit to succeed Hying. McClory is the fifth and current bishop of the Diocese of Gary.

Sex Abuse

In January 2005, the Diocese of Gary diocese was sued by an Orlando, Florida, man who claimed to have been sexually abused by Richard Emerson. Starting in 1978, Emerson served as a priest in the Diocese of Gary, then moved in 1986 to the Diocese of Orlando as a temporary assignment. The plaintiff stated that Emerson sexually abused him as a minor in Orlando during the late 1980s and early 1990s at St. Charles Borromeo Parish. In 1991, Orlando Bishop Norbert Dorsey sent Emerson back to Gary because Dorsey was concerned about Emerson's friendships with two boys. The Diocese of Gary removed Emerson from ministry in 2004 after learning about the accusation from Florida. Emerson was laicized at his own request in 2006.

In December 2003, Bishop Melczek removed Don Grass from ministry after the priest admitted to sexually abusing a preteen girl. The victim reported the incident to the diocese in November 2003, saying that the crime happened during the 1960s while Grass was assigned to Cathedral of the Holy Angels Parish. Grass was never returned to ministry.

The diocese in August 2018 published a list of ten priests with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors.

Statistics

As of 2023, the Diocese of Gary had 77 priests, 70 permanent deacons, 12 religious brothers, and 56 religious sisters. The diocese had a Catholic population of 170,144 in 59 parishes. In 2012, four parishes in the diocese offered mass in Polish, two parishes in Croatian, one in Hungarian, and one in Lithuanian. Fourteen parishes offered mass in Spanish.

In 2023, the diocese had 17 elementary schools, three high schools, one college, and a Catholic student center at Valparaiso University. The diocese also supervised six hospitals or medical centers, three homes for the aged, three protective homes, three cemeteries, and Catholic Charities, Diocese of Gary.

Bishops

File:Bishop Donald J. Hying (2022 St. John Bosco Conference).png

Bishop Hying (2022)

Bishops of Gary

• Andrew Gregory Grutka (1956–1984)
• Norbert Felix Gaughan (1984–1996)
• Dale Joseph Melczek (1996–2014)
• Donald J. Hying (2014–2019), appointed Bishop of Madison.
• Robert John McClory ( 2019–present)

Coadjutor bishop

Dale Joseph Melczek (1995–1996)

Other diocesan priest who became bishop

Carl Frederick Mengeling, appointed Bishop of Lansing

Education

Elementary schools

• Aquinas School at St. Andrew's – Merrillville
• Nativity of Our Savior – Portage
• Notre Dame – Michigan City
• Our Lady of Grace – Highland
• Queen of All Saints – Michigan City
• St. Casimir – Hammond
• St. John Bosco – Hammond
• St. John the Baptist – Whiting
• St. John the Evangelist – St. John
• St. Mary – Griffith
• St. Mary Catholic Community School – Crown Point
• St. Michael – Schererville
• St. Patrick – Chesterton
• St. Paul Catholic – Valparaiso
• St. Stanislaus – East Chicago
• St. Stanislaus Kostka – Michigan City
• St. Thomas More – Munster

Closed schools

• St. Catherine of Siena – Hammond
• Holy Trinity
• Holy Angels, which turned into Sr Thea Bowman
• Blessed Sacrament
• St Peter & Paul
• St. Mark
• Our Lady of Perpetual Help
• St. Mary (East Chicago)
• Indiana Harbor Catholic
• Sacred Heart
• Sr. Thea Bowman

Secondary schools

Operated by diocese

• Andrean High School – Merrillville
• Bishop Noll Institute – Hammond
• Marquette Catholic High School – Michigan City

Independent

• La Lumiere School – La Porte
• Sacred Heart Apostolic School – Rolling Prairie

Colleges

Calumet College of St. Joseph – Whiting

Extraordinary Form

In 2018, Bishop Hying invited the Institute of Christ the King to begin an apostolate at St. Joseph Parish in Hammond, offering the Extraordinary Form on a weekly basis. In 2022, it was moved to Merrillville at the Our Lady of Czestochowa Shrine. In 2015, the NWI Latin Mass Community was founded by laity to support and promote the Extraordinary Form in the diocese

In 2018, a Solemn High Mass was offered at the Cathedral of the Holy Angels by Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry from the Archdiocese of Chicago.Previously, a Traditional Latin Mass was available at St. Stanislaus in Michigan City, but this mass was discontinued when the celebrant died. For 28 years the Carmelite Shrine in Munster offered regularly. It was established in 1990 at the recommendation of Bishop Gaughan.

External links

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Gary
• NWI Catholic (Diocese of Gary's weekly newspaper)
• NWI Latin Mass Community