WHITING – Nestled within the neighborhoods of Whiting, a group of faithful gathered at the Immaculate Conception Grotto along Shrage Avenue to honor the Blessed Mary with a May Crowning ceremony on May 9. The location, a replica of Our Lady of Lourdes in France, provided a beautiful backdrop for the service on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
Margaret Saliga, who was in attendance, shared that it has been said that "a picture is worth 1000 words,” and the grotto is a unique visual reminder of God’s presence. The coordinator of adult faith enrichment at St. John the Baptist said that even if people are unaware of the story of Lourdes, France, the miraculous appearances of Mary to Bernadette, and the many miracles that have occurred there, they are touched when they visit the grotto.
“Seeing and sitting within this beautiful space at the center of our little city, the casual observer is beckoned to pause and reflect,” she said. “God’s glory is revealed in the natural beauty surrounding the grotto, the myriad song birds’ melodies, and the interesting statuary.”
Saliga feels the grotto raises public awareness of mysteries that often provoke questions. Many of the various individuals and groups visiting the grotto throughout the year, she noted, are brought to a new awareness of that “God with us.”
“Whether you visit the Immaculate Conception Grotto regularly or occasionally, you sense its value,” Saliga said, “You have only to enter, observe, breathe and ‘Be Still.’ The rewards are beyond this world!”
Frank Vargo was a parishioner of Immaculate Conception until he married and started teaching at St. John the Baptist School for 42 years. He and his wife are still members of St. John. His grandparents, John and Anna Wagner, were some of the founders of Immaculate Conception Church in the early 1920s. He, his mother, Anne Wagner Vargo, and his brother received all of their sacraments there and graduated from Immaculate Conception School.
Vargo, a member of the Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society, has also been a member of the Immaculate Conception Grotto Committee for the past five years. The Lourdes Grotto, he explained, was erected with the help and generosity of the founders of Immaculate Conception. The grotto is built of limestone imported from the upper Lake Superior region and was dedicated by Archbishop John Francis Noll in 1928. Father John J. Lach was the pastor at the time, and it was his idea to build the grotto modeled after the Lourdes Grotto in France.
“The Immaculate Conception Grotto has been a place of worship and celebration of our Catholic Slovak faith for nearly 100 years,” Vargo said. “It is a place where all people are welcomed to pray, meditate or just sit and admire the statues in the Lourdes grotto.
The Immaculate Conception church was demolished in 2018, but the grotto remains a peaceful place for people to pray from sunrise to sunset. From late spring to early autumn, people gather on Wednesdays at 2 p.m. (weather permitting) to pray the Rosary together. In addition to the May Crowning of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the grotto hosts a prayer service on Respect Life Sunday in October.
Vargo said it's remarkable, given its proximity to Lake Michigan, that the grotto has endured extreme Whiting weather from the heat of summers to the freezing weather of winters for nearly 100 years. The stones are still there, a little worse for wear, but still stand as a tribute to the Slovak parishioners and, more importantly, to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.
John and Lucille Blasko are likewise members of the grotto committee with family ties to the former Immaculate Conception parish. They have been parishioners since their marriage in 1963, and have been involved with the maintenance of the grotto. The couple said since its construction, the grotto has more recently become part of the wider Whiting Robertsdale Catholic community, with a variety of parishioners visiting from St. John the Baptist, St. Adalbert and St. Mary Byzantine churches.
“We do make the space available to the Catholic churches in the area if they want to hold anything there or if they want to include that area in services that they have,” explained John Blasko.
While some of the property where Immaculate Conception once stood was returned to the city, the grotto continues to belong to the Diocese of Gary. The area displays the original bell from the parish, and plans are to add the cross that was on the church’s steeple. The grotto committee has made engraved paving stones available for purchase, with about 60 already placed in the area. The funds from those stones purchased assist with maintenance projects, for example, fixing the water fountain.
“As members of the parish, we remember, and our children remember,” John Blasko said. “And now our children’s children – it’s something for them.”
He added, “To think about the efforts the parishioners put in to make that parish begin and to be viable for 90 years before it closed creates a feeling of pride within yourself that you’ve been part of this and the family.”
For more information, contact St. John the Baptist Office at (219) 659-0023 or John and Lucille Blasko at (219) 659-2949.
