Roman Catholic Diocese of Gary

The Diocese of Gary () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or 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 of the Diocese of Gary is the Cathedral of the Holy Angels in Gary, Indiana.  The diocese was erected on December 17, 1956, by Pope Pius XII. As of 2023, the current bishop 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 Reverend Andrew Grutka of the Diocese 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 
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, Pope Francis in 2014 appointed Auxiliary Bishop Donald J. Hying of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee as the next bishop of Gary.  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. As of 2023, McClory is the 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 Reverend Richard Emerson. Starting in 1978, Emerson served 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.  At Emerson's request, the Vatican laicized him in 2006.

The plaintiff in the 2005 case claimed that the Diocese of Gary ignored earlier sexual abuse allegations against Emerson during his first residence in Indiana. The diocese was sued in 2008 by an Indiana man who claimed that Emerson sexually abused him as a minor in White County. In July 2010, a second Orlando man sued the diocese, claiming that he had been abused as a 15 year old by Emerson in Florida.

In December 2003, Melczek removed Monsignor Don Grass from ministry after he 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 1960's 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

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
As of 2023, the superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Gary is Dr. Joseph Majchrowicz.

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

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
, the only mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite in the diocese is offered at the Carmelite Shrine in Munster. It was established in 1990 at the recommendation of Bishop Gaughan. 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 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.

In 2018, the Institute of Christ the King began an apostolate at St. Joseph parish in Hammond, offering the Extraordinary Form on a weekly basis. St. Joseph parish in Dyer also held a monthly mass in the Extraordinary Form.

See also

 Catholic Church by country
 Catholic Church in the United States
 Ecclesiastical Province of Indianapolis
 Global organisation of the Catholic Church
 List of Roman Catholic archdioceses (by country and continent)
 List of Roman Catholic dioceses (alphabetical) (including archdioceses)
 List of Roman Catholic dioceses (structured view) (including archdioceses)
 List of the Catholic dioceses of the United States

References

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

 
Culture of Gary, Indiana
Christian organizations established in 1956
Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Indianapolis
Roman Catholic Dioceses in Indiana
Gary
Gary