MERRILLVILLE – As the country marked the Labor Day weekend to celebrate and recognize the social and economic achievements of American workers, parishioners of the Merrillville parishes took a moment to reflect on their own achievements during the past several years and celebrate the official announcement of the churches coming together as one parish family of faith during Masses Aug. 30-31.
Father Ted Mauch was overjoyed to announce that effective Sept. 15, 2025, on the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, Holy Martyrs and Our Lady of Consolation will be united as a one new parish under the title Our Lady Queen of Martyrs.
Since arriving in September 2021, Father Mauch’s primary goal has been to support the spiritual and pastoral needs of the Catholic community in Merrillville. When assigned to shepherd the Merrillville community, he joined an ongoing conversation that began in February 2021, following the untimely death of Father James Meade, regarding the viability of the five Merrillville parishes.
Since then, Father Mauch had the opportunity to meet and work with many leaders in the community, including members of the pastoral and finance councils and other groups, who participated in this consultative process. Those conversations affirmed the wisdom of the decision published by Bishop Robert J. McClory on July 1, 2021, accepting the recommendation that, in phases over time, all Merrillville parishes would become one parish with two worship sites.
On Jan. 1, 2022, Holy Martyrs Parish emerged out of the former communities of Ss. Peter and Paul, St. Andrew the Apostle, and St. Joan of Arc parishes as a new expression of faith, hope and love. On Aug. 1, 2023, at the request of their Parish Pastoral Council and Finance Council, St. Stephen, Martyr joined with Holy Martyrs Parish. The name Holy Martyrs having been chosen, as the saints Peter, Paul, Andrew, Stephen and Joan of Arc were all martyred for their faith.
“I became pastor of Our Lady of Consolation on March 1, 2022, in addition to Holy Martyrs, and have been greatly encouraged by how both communities have worked together to make Christ known more vibrantly through our many joint ministries and activities,” said Father Mauch.
Melissa Novak, director of discipleship and evangelization, confirmed that over the past couple of years, one of the big ways the parish prepared for the merge was to start bringing ministries together.
“It’s given us a chance to renew some of them, support new leaders, and make sure everyone feels welcome and included.” she said.
One example, Novak shared, was the merger of the ministry to homebound parishioners. As part of that, the parishes hosted an evening of reflection and training, which brought both current and new volunteers together in a meaningful way.
Novak added that parish staff also worked together on several events (picnics, Lenten fish fries, Days of Reflection) – some of which were long-time traditions.
“We made sure to include people from all communities on the planning teams so we could both honor those traditions and bring in new ideas that reflect how we’re coming together,” she said. “It’s been inspiring to see people connect and collaborate in ways that are helping us grow as one faith community.”
Following the consultation and canonical processes, Bishop McClory celebrated final Masses of Thanksgiving at Ss. Peter and Paul, St. Joan of Arc and St. Stephen, Martyr. Since then, the properties have either been sold or are in the process of being sold, with the proceeds benefiting Holy Martyrs Parish. As outlined in the recommendation accepted by Bishop McClory and affirmed continuously by the Pastoral Council over the last four years, the united parish community of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs will inherit all of the assets and liabilities, spiritual and temporal, including the facilities at Our Lady of Consolation and Holy Martyrs, as well as Aquinas Catholic Community School. The current Mass schedule will continue unchanged.
“Participation in weekend Mass has blossomed since changes were made to the Mass schedule in June of 2022,” said Father Mauch. “The new schedule respected each parish’s previous customs as much as possible while enabling one priest to celebrate all the regularly scheduled Masses without regular assistance from visiting priests.”
He continued, “I am happy to say that the consolidation of five sites with fourteen weekend Masses, to two sites with five weekend Mass times has resulted in the average Mass attendees attendance growing from 800 to 1,000 attendees. It is exciting to experience the Merrillville Catholic community coming together and welcoming new parishioners.”
Father Mauch said he has been filled with joy seeing the many people and ministries of the communities unite as one parish over the last four years. He explained that unity led the Parish Pastoral and Finance Council and others to a consensus regarding, from several options, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs as its new identity.
“We are committed to joyfully proclaiming Christ with a single voice as our communities are joined together,” he said.
Novak loves that the new name gives honor to all the parishes that have/are merging together. She noted that 42 members of the parish (along with a few friends from other parishes) recently completed a Marian consecration study, which concluded on the Feast of the Queenship of Mary.
“The timing of the parish merge – just a few weeks later – and the similarity between the feast’s title and our new parish name seem providential,” she said.
Over the next several weeks, parishioners will see changes in signage and stationery. Eventually, members will receive new envelopes reflecting the new name, as it will take some months for all the details to be finalized.
Parishioner Duane Forbes said it was a welcomed announcement. His family has been members of Holy Martyrs Parish, formerly St. Andrew, for 25 years. He noticed previously that the Merrillville churches, although they were good parishes, were each doing their own things on small scales.
“When we combined, we have seen a difference in our ministries doing bigger things on a bigger scale,” he said.
Forbes noted that the food pantry is now wider spread, reaching more people in need, the religious education classes are combined into one location and the pro-life ministry and the Knights of Columbus council is stronger as a result of the merger.
“We can do more together,” he said.
