WINFIELD – If it’s Tuesday (or Wednesday or Thursday), you could find Father Thomas Mischler at any one of three parishes – Holy Spirit in Winfield, where he has been the pastor since 2010; St. Helen in Hebron, where he began as temporary administrator in 2016 and became sole pastor in 2017, after associate pastor Father Frank Torres died suddenly; or St. Mary in Kouts, where he became the administrator in May 2020 after the death of longtime pastor Father Thomas Tibbs.
Now known as One Catholic Family, the three parishes that straddle southern Lake and Porter counties share not only a shepherd but a Mass schedule as well as numerous activities and some ministries.
“I thought the only way to talk to the people about the situation was to talk about a blended family, and I was happy to be part of that,” Father Mischler explained. “We have made efforts to come together with one logo, a shared bulletin and shared holiday liturgies, and we’re still working on that.”
With assistance from Father Ian Williams, who is in residence at St. Helen while battling cancer, Father Mischler travels to all three parishes for Masses and ministries. “Father Ian called within a day or two of Father Frank’s death and offered his help,” he said. “He asked about moving into the rectory in Hebron within a few months, and the gracious people of St. Helen have taken him under their wing – as they had Father Torres – which is what sustains him, I believe.
“Father Ian has had some great ideas about blending our parishes,” Father Mischler.
Father Mischler’s journey to the priesthood began at Bishop Noll Institute, where he headed after graduating from St. Mary School in Griffith. He remembers picking up a copy of the Glenmary Home Missioners magazine at home the summer before his senior year at Noll and being “intrigued by some of the stories” about the Catholic missionary organization founded in rural Ohio.
“Prior to that, I thought I’d like to be a lawyer based on a couple of television shows about defense attorneys that took on cases for people who needed help,” Father Mischler. “Then that Glenmary magazine flipped my mind to a spiritual profession (as a way to help people).”
“That led me to talk to my pastor, Father Richard Zollinger, about a possible vocation, and then I started applying to Catholic colleges,” recalled Father Mischler. “Father Zollinger suggested I check out St. Meinrad (Seminary and School of Theology), so my dad and I took a road trip there in November and I was pretty impressed.
“I met the Gary seminarians studying these and visited a pizza place called The Unstable, where students hung out,” he added. “I decided that if I was going to be asking myself about the seminary, I should be where others were also asking that question, so I told Father Zollinger and got approval to attend St. Meinrad.”
During his senior year of college, he remembers a single 30-minute meeting with Bishop Andrew G. Grutka. “He spent 20 minutes talking about North American College in Rome, five minutes on Mundelein Seminary and five minutes on other seminaries, so I said to myself, I guess I’m going to Rome,” Father Mischler said. “I was excited about the opportunity, but scared to take classes in Italian.”
Thanks to American ingenuity and seminarian Mischler’s prowess at typing, he joined a small “note system” group that shared translated class notes.
When making plans for priestly ordination in 1981, Deacon Mischler decided that rather than the Vatican, he wanted to be ordained “with the people I would be serving,” so he returned to the Diocese of Gary to become a priest at the Cathedral of the Holy Angels before returning to Rome for another year to finish his licensed degree in Theology, with a specialty in Spirituality.
Teaching became Father Mischler’s first assignment, first for a year at BNI (1982-83), then for a year-and-a-half at Marquette High School in Michigan City (1983-84), before moving to Valparaiso University for two years as director of campus ministry at Thunder House, which eventually became St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Student Center.
He served as parochial vicar at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Hammond (1986-89), administrator and pastor at St. Edward in Lowell (1989-98), pastor of St. Mary of the Lake in Gary (1998-2010) and later also Holy Rosary (2007-10) before heading to Holy Spirit.
He has served the diocese on the Priests Council and currently serves on the Priest Personnel Board in addition to directing the Cursillo program.
A big Chicago Cubs fan and movie aficionado, Father Mischler admits he has become more of a homebody since the COVID-19 pandemic, where he enjoys the company of Milo, his mixed rescue dog that favors the American Staffordshire breed.
“He’s a sweetheart, loves to go for walks and is a great companion,” Milo’s pal said. “He has no problem with me going in and out. He just sleeps until I come back.”
Father Mischler finds “working with people, knowing when the light of God’s comfort can reach them in their darkest moments” the best thing about being a pastor, and “the access to God’s joy and the ability to reach it” his favorite part of being a priest. “Knowing there is a comfort that’s available and you can bring that,” sustains him on visits to patients at St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart. “That’s what keeps me sane. Like sorbet, it soothes the palate.”
Caption: Father Thomas Mischler conducts a baptism during Mass on Sept. 29 at Holy Spirit in Winfield, where he has been pastor since July 1, 2010. He is now also pastor of St. Helen in Hebron and administrator of St. Mary in Kouts, creating One Catholic Family. (Marlene A. Zloza photo)