April 29, 2025 // Diocese

St. Adalbert, St. Casimir Parishes in South Bend to Consolidate

Scott Warden

Editor-In-Chief

After decades of sharing their ministerial and communal lives, two neighboring parishes in South Bend will officially consolidate this summer according to a decree signed by Bishop Rhoades. Effective on July 1, St. Adalbert Parish and St. Casimir Parish will join together to create a new parish, which will be named Saints Casimir and Adalbert Parish.

“The pastor of St. Casimir and St. Adalbert parishes, on the advice of the parish and finance councils of both parishes and after consultation of both parish communities, approached me with the recommendation that the parishes should be consolidated,” Bishop Rhoades wrote in the decree, which he signed on Monday, April 7. “This recommendation is based on the desire to ensure future sustainability of both parishes, to formalize the unity already realized between both parishes, and to make administration of both parishes more manageable.”

In an interview with Today’s Catholic, Holy Cross Father Ryan Pietrocarlo, who has served both St. Adalbert and St. Casimir parishes for the past nine years – the past five as pastor of both parishes – said the consolidation is being made to make it easier to operate both parishes. The assets and debts of both parishes will be taken up by the new parish in order to simplify its accounting and administration, said Father Pietrocarlo, who noted that both church buildings will still be utilized for Masses and that there is no plan to alter the Mass schedules.

“Certainly, one goal of this is to strengthen and formalize the unity of both parish communities now that we’ll be formally one,” Father Pietrocarlo said. “It’s already happening, but we’ll be encouraging people to go back and forth more, to interact more. … And then also we’re hoping for long-term sustainability by having all the money together. We can now do some more financial planning, including for maintenance needs. We have all old buildings, so we want to keep investing in our buildings and to maintain them, so I think this merger will make that a little easier.”

According to the decree, the new boundaries of SS. Casimir and Adalbert Parish will be: New York Central Railroad to the north, South Arnold Street to the east, Sample Street to Grand Trunk Railroad to the South, and North to Falcon Street and continuing on Falcon Street to the west.

Located a mile apart on the west side of South Bend, both parishes were founded to serve the city’s growing population of Polish immigrants – St. Casimir in 1899 and St. Adalbert in 1910. While the Polish heritage remains strong, both parishes – as well as St. Adalbert School – have been strengthened by the growth of the Latino population in the area.

Father Pietrocarlo said parishioners representing the two cultures have embraced one another, which will allow for a smooth transition from two parishes into one. Those who founded the parishes, Father Pietrocarlo said, “were very much working-class people in South Bend. The two parishes have served the same purpose today as they did when they were founded, which is to welcome immigrants into the South Bend area. And so, now we welcome mainly immigrants from Latin America. It’s very vibrant. There are a lot of young families. The two communities, Polish and Latino, mix very, very well. There’s a lot of life and a lot of vibrancy here, which has been very special.”

Even before Father Pietrocarlo came to the parishes nearly a decade ago, the two communities shared more than just a boundary, he said.

“What I saw was simply that the two parishes were already acting as one parish,” Father Pietrocarlo said. “They’re only a mile apart. Since I’ve been here, the two parishes have always been together. In seeing that reality, I began to think about moving forward with an actual consolidation to make that unity more formal.”

He continued: “Along with parishioners attending both churches for Mass, many of our ministries have already been consolidated, including a prayer group, marriage ministry, Christ Renews His Parish, a social justice ministry – and the members of all of these are always from both parishes, and that has been the case since I came nine years ago. Sometimes they’ll meet at St. Casimir, and sometimes they’ll meet at St. Adalbert. Nobody is particular about where they meet, because they see it all as one. They aren’t ministries to just one parish; they are ministries to both, which is very cool. So, there’s already been sort of an informal consolidation of the parishes.”

Father Pietrocarlo said the idea of the parishes consolidating stemmed from the successful merger of St. Patrick and St. Hedwig parishes last summer, which proved to him that such a transition could be possible.

“And so, I presented it to the councils,” Father Pietrocarlo said. “The vast majority thought that it made sense, because we already are living as one parish, so why not make it a reality?”

“The goal of this consolidation was not to change the life of the parish at all. So, we’re not going to change our Mass schedule, or where ministries meet, or what they’re named,” Father Pietrocarlo added. “So, for our parishioners, it’s going to be the same life. The only differences will come at the administrative level – mainly, we’ll now have just one bank account; all the money will be together. Also, we’ll have fewer councils. We’ll have just one parish council and one finance council. So, the merger will actually make it a little bit easier for the administration now, because we’ll have one set of financial books to account for, one budget. So, in the end, it’ll ease the administrative burden of managing the two churches. I think for that reason, that made sense to parishioners, because I talked to the councils, I also did a town hall meeting, just for information, I wrote about it in the bulletin, and people hearing that felt that this really makes sense. But the life of our parish will remain the same, because we’re already living the reality of one parish, and that’s why the reaction to the merger has been so positive.”

Mira Gasko, who told Today’s Catholic that she’s been a parishioner at St. Casimir “for all 72 years of my life,” said she thought the consolidation of the two parishes “was a great idea.”

“I see how hard our priests work doing double duty to maintain the two parishes,” said Gasko, who serves as president of the pastoral council at St. Casimir. “Combining councils, the budget, etc., should give them more time to address the spiritual needs of the parishioners.”

Paul Tipps, who serves as secretary of the financial council at St. Casimir, told Today’s Catholic that the consolidation “was not unexpected – and, frankly, I thought it would have happened before now.” He added that he is “happy we have begun the process of consolidating the two parishes” and that he sees “both parishes as stronger together – financially, spiritually, administratively, and socially.”

Tipps admitted that one of his early concerns regarding the consolidation was how the new parish would “seamlessly and effectively integrate the legacy Polish parishioners and the relatively new Hispanic parishioners.”

Father Pietrocarlo said Tipps’ concern was shared by others.

“There was that fear of … would our identity change?” Father Pietrocarlo said. “So, I wanted to respect both church communities and their history and their tradition. And so even though we’ll be together, we’ll maintain those identities, too, like we have been.”

Father Pietrocarlo said, in a way, the mix of cultures is “kind of like a small microcosm of the universal Church.”

“This has been going on for a little more than 20 years, because the Latino community arrived at St. Adalbert and St. Casimir when St. Stephen Parish [in South Bend] closed in 2003. And so, it’s taken time, and they’ve gotten to know each other in terms of what their cultures are about, and they’ve found that there’s a lot more similarities than differences. … We definitely can live together and be together. And it’s a great unity between these two communities; it’s very, very beautiful. They both support each other, respect each other. The Latinos love hearing about the history of the Polish and all they did to keep these churches running and the love they have for them now. They see themselves in the Polish because the Polish immigrants came over for the same type of work they came over for – factories and farming. And they’re doing the same thing now. And then our Polish love the Latinos because there’s lots of young families who are taking care of the church or they’re working like their ancestors and they themselves have. It’s very beautiful to see that unity, and so we’re hoping that we’ll keep fostering that now with this parish consolidation.”

Angeles Gonzalez, who serves on the financial council at St. Adalbert, told Today’s Catholic that “the Polish and Hispanic cultures present in each church has influenced the diversity and vibrancy of the liturgy and community life. The festivals and community outreach are felt deeply by the contributions of each of the church’s cultures.”

Gonzalez added: “The process of the consolidation was a perfect time to practice synodality in our parish. The entire parish participated in prayer to actively discern God’s will for our parish. It is beautiful to see how the Holy Spirit is acting in our parish to lovingly guide us toward deeper unity with Christ.”

Scott Warden is editor-in-chief of Today’s Catholic.