GARY – Gratitude was the word of the day as parishioners past and present filled SS. Monica and Luke on May 24 for a closing Mass and fellowship dinner.
“One hundred years ago, St. Monica church was given a mission, and it has been completed,” said Father Michael Surufka, OFM, pastor for the past three years and one of a group of Franciscan priests serving the faith community in the Diocese of Gary’s host city. Once “the biggest among ethnic parishes in the Diocese of Gary” with 2,500 families, noted Father Surufka, St. Monica merged with St. Luke, a nearby Gary parish, in 1980, joining a largely African American faith community with a smaller, largely Hispanic congregation.
“We have nothing to be ashamed of, to lament,” said the final spiritual leader of the merged parish. “Bringing your Paschal Mystery to completion so something else can come and grow … it is something to celebrate.”
Celebrate they did, starting with a sea of red attire to mark Pentecost and led by a soulful choir which began with a Litany of Saints as a gathering song that led to a rousing version of the processional hymn, “I’m on the Battlefield for My Lord.”
“Isn’t it great to be here today?” asked Father Surufka, whose co-celebrant was Father Jeffrey Burton, dean of the Northlake Deanery of the diocese. “What a day to do a sad thing, because the promise of Pentecost gives us great hope.” Jesus had told his apostles that he would not leave them alone despite his death, but they didn’t understand what he meant, added Father Surufka, “but when Pentecost came (and Jesus appeared to them), they realized what he meant.”
On Pentecost, “The Father sent me, and I send you,” Jesus told his apostles. “The Lord said, ‘Peace be with you’ and don’t we need that peace today?” Father Surufka said. “Buildings may come and go, as they often do, but the Spirit remains.”
Father Surufka reminded the grieving congregation that, “The mission came before the Church, (so the question is not) does the Church have a mission, but does the mission have a Church, and we are that Church. In a world screaming for peace, Jesus says ‘Forgive.’
“We have the power to get in the way, but we also have the power to forgive,” he added. “Who does resentment eat up? You, not the other guy.”
Ask the Lord to “break open our resentment, and if you have someone to forgive, but you are still hurting, say to the Lord, ‘I’m not there yet, help me to get there, but in the meantime, you do the forgiving I can’t do yet,” said Father Surufka.
Quoting a popular hymn, “Send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth,” the pastor asked, “What face will He renew first? The one we see in the mirror. So, ask the Lord to help you be the one to start the renewal, a voice of love in a time of hate.
“We have much to be thankful for, and the only thing that can get in the way of that gratitude is resentment and hurt,” Father Surufka concluded. “Lord, touch the hearts of everyone this church has helped.”
Ss. Monica and Luke will continue to help people who have been receiving a weekly meal from its soup kitchen, for more than 25 years, according to Verlie Suggs, who has directed the program since its inception in 1993. “The soup kitchen will continue to operate out of SS. Monica and Luke this summer, with meal pick-up at noon on Fridays, and will shift to the cathedral this fall after renovations to its kitchen are completed,” announced Suggs. All donations should now be directed to the Cathedral of the Holy Angels at 640 Tyler St., Gary, IN 46402.
For clients who cannot travel to the cathedral, added Suggs, arrangements are being made to bring meals to the Ss. Monica and Luke parking lot for distribution once the soup kitchen itself moves.
The parish food pantry operated by Ss. Monica and Luke closed operations in April after distributing all of its food on April 18 and at a pop-up pantry on recent soup kitchen days. Hector Arroyo and other volunteers will now join the food pantry operated at St. Mary of the Lake in Gary. Call 938-1373 for more information.
Suggs said it is tough to see her parish close, but the Gary faith community is welcoming parishioners to its remaining three parishes. “We actually closed our church for three Sundays earlier this Spring and invited people to attend Mass at St. Joseph the Worker, St. Mary of the Lake and the Holy Angels Cathedral as a unit, while some are going to attend Assumption of the Blessed Mary in New Chicago, too,” said Suggs.
Her favorite memory of Ss. Monica and Luke, she added, occurred the first day she walked into the church 34 years ago, when she was pregnant with her daughter, Madilyn Kay Harris. “I heard the choir singing, including Ramon Morton, who sang today, and Msgr. (Joseph) Viater was sharing a story about a deacon who had recently passed away. I was crying my eyes out. I felt such warmth. The sign of peace took 15 minutes as everyone greeted each other, and I said, ‘This is where I belong.’” Already a member of Holy Trinity Croatian Church in East Chicago, “I became a member of two churches that day, because Ss. Monica and Luke filled my soul,” Suggs added.
Her grandson, Junia Michael David Findlay, the son of her daughter Madilyn, was the last child baptized at Ss. Monica and Luke, on Easter Sunday this year, and the youngest to attend the closing Mass.
Dawn Matthews, of Chicago, came to honor the “friendship, unity and Christian charity, and the service to the community” she experienced as the leader, known as Faithful Navigator, with Clara Ann Martin Chapter 39 of the Knights of Peter Claver, Gracious Ladies Auxiliary, Fourth Degree, whose 40 members have been meeting monthly at the parish. “We had funerals for four Gary members in the past year, but while most members are from seven Chicagoland parishes, we still have three members from Gary, Anne Thompson, Henri Goode and Minnie Durosseaux.
The group will move its meetings to the Cathedral of the Holy Angels at 10 a.m. on the first Saturday of every month, starting Aug. 1. Anyone interested in membership can call Thompson at 949-9448.
Linda Boger Wyatt, now living in Chicago, came with her son, Sean Wyatt, to celebrate her home parish. “I was baptized at St. Monica when the church was on 23rd and Adams Street, and I attended grade school there,” she said. “My son was also baptized here, and I came today because of the history and what St. Monica meant to our family. God was here.”
Richard Broughton, now of Hobart, joined SS. Monica and Luke in the 1980’s, when his former Gary parish, Holy Rosary, closed. “It was a small parish, and everyone here knew each other by name. I brought my daughter and granddaughter, both from Chicago, today,” he said.
“The people” is what William C. Mitchell, invited back to accompany the choir on saxophone at the closing Mass, will remember most about St. Monica, which he joined in 1975. “We merged different cultures, and everyone wanted it to succeed when we merged with St. Luke, and it did succeed,” he said proudly.
Siblings Rosa Muniz Ortiz, of Naperville, Ill., and Myrta Davila, of Hobart, are parishioners at the Cathedral of the Holy Angels, who came to SS. Monica and Luke’s closing Mass “to support all of the parishioners,” some of whom she knows personally. It is a beautiful Mass,” said Ortiz.
The celebration moved to The Chateau Banquet Center in Merrillville after Mass for an afternoon of memories and socializing at the Final Mass Fellowship & Dinner attended by 350. Parishioner James L. Harris offered a welcome and split emcee duties with Paul Mulligan, while Dr. Pearlette Springer offered a history of the two parishes. Generations of parishioners shared reflections, including Anne Thompson, Delores Turner, Deacon Michel Cummings, Diana Moreno, Jorie Spinks and Cicely Hughes, Madilyn Harris and Cameron Johnson, who was presented with a service award for his work with senior citizens. Longtime parish secretary Pamela Montgomery-Davis was also honored.
Father Jay Nuthulapati, the newly appointed rector of the Cathedral of the Holy Angels, acknowledged the sadness and sense of loss the SS. Monica and Luke community is experiencing, and said, “I am here for you as your family in Christ, and God is walking with you,” reminding the people that the three remaining parishes in Gary “are wide open. We are here to comfort you, to care for you, with the love God has for you. The future will be filled with many graces and blessings.”
A final blessing was given by Bishop Robert J. McClory, who recalled the “contact tracing” employed to stem the spread during the COVID pandemic that struck just after his installation in 2020. “Thanks to your beautiful witness and your loving care, the legacy and spiritual contact tracing (of SS. Monica and Luke) will go beyond this day,” he said.
Caption: Members of Clara Ann Martin Chapter 39 of the Knights of Peter Claver, Gracious Ladies Auxiliary, Fourth Degree, an international Catholic fraternal service order, gather for a last photo after the closing Mass at Ss. Monica and Luke in Gary on May 24. The group, which includes three members from Gary and others from throughout the Chicagoland area, has been meeting at Ss. Monica and Luke for years, and will now move to the Cathedral of the Holy Angels, also in Gary, to meet at 10 a.m. on the first Saturday
