150 years and counting: St. Anthony of Padua Parish celebrates sesquicentennial

Photo caption: Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein was the principal celebrant at an Oct. 22 Mass celebrating St. Anthony of Padua Parish’s sesquicentennial in Morris. (Photo by Russ King)

By Sean Gallagher

One hundred fifty years ago, Indiana was in the beginning stages of the development that resulted in the modern Hoosier state in which we live today.

Railroads were starting to cross the state’s hills and countrysides. Towns, businesses and various industries sprang up alongside them.

In 1856, St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Morris was established in a town that had a railroad go through it that connected Indianapolis and Cincinnati.

On Oct. 22, many current members of the parish gathered with Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein and its longtime pastor, Msgr. Bernard Schmitz, to celebrate the faith community’s sesquicentennial with a solemn eucharistic liturgy.

According to Msgr. Schmitz, the found-ing members of St. Anthony of Padua Parish were largely from the region around Baden Baden in Germany’s Black Forest.

German was a primary language of the parish for more than a half century. It continued to be spoken in the parish school for another 60 years, not ceasing until 1917 during World War I when German-speaking Americans were frequently pressured to give up the language because of the anti-German bias.

Many of the parishioners that recently celebrated the anniversary trace their ancestry to the parish’s founders.

One parishioner, Erica Case, said it was her great-great-great grandfather, Balthasar Merkel, who donated the land for St. Anthony Parish. Case lives about a mile from the church.

In a recent interview, she talked about how the story of her family’s connection to the parish was passed on to her at an early age.

“I think I knew about it since I was pretty little,” Case said. “My grandma told us early on about that.”

The close ties of many other families to the parish were highlighted during the anniversary through posters that showed how ancestors of current members called St. Anthony their spiritual home in years past.

“It was really neat to see how so many of us were connected in different ways from the past …,” Case said.

Although St. Anthony Parish is now 150 years old, Msgr. Schmitz has been its spiritual leader for nearly a quarter of that time. He is in his 37th year as pastor.

Throughout that time, he said that members have been a strong support for him.

“They keep bolstering me up every day,” Msgr. Schmitz said. “They’ve always been there when needed, and they’ve taken the lead in seeing that our parish remains a spiritual one.”

One spiritual aspect of parish life that he highlighted was its quarter-century long dedication to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament on Friday mornings.

Each week, an hour is set aside for eucharistic adoration, ending with solemn Benediction. Msgr. Schmitz said that this happened more than 1,500 times over the past 25 years.

The spiritual support that Msgr. Schmitz gains from the members of St. Anthony Parish is reciprocal, at least for Case.

“He’s an amazing guy,” said Case, who, at 26, has known no other pastor in her life.

“He has such a deep faith, and he’s such a holy man. We can learn so much just by his example, just watching how he lives his life.”

Although St. Anthony of Padua Parish’s recent anniversary was a historic milestone, there was a definite spiritual atmosphere to how parish members marked it.

After a weekend of celebrations that centered around the Mass, the parish sponsored a mission the following week.

“I think [the mission] was good to tie it in because it made it more than just the celebration of the building and the facilities,” Case said. “It made it more of a celebration of what [the people] stood for, and what they believed in.

“You can imagine the people way back when in their old-time outfits doing the same thing.”

While Msgr. Schmitz and many of the families have a historic connection with the parish, others are newcomers.

Although Joanne Schrimpf joined the parish only two years ago, she took a lead role in organizing the anniversary celebrations, which also included a special meal after the anniversary Mass and a parade in the town of Morris on the following day.

When she agreed to this task, Schrimpf studied the history of the faith community. What impressed her was the continuity at a fundamental level between the original members and those who carry on after them today.

“When we peel it all down, it’s all so abundantly clear to me that we are no different in our faith or our fears or our loves,” Schrimpf said. “We are [the same] one body that they were 150 years ago.”

Having passed this landmark in the history of her parish, Case is now looking forward to its future, a future that she hopes includes her.

“I don’t know quite what the future is going to hold,” Case said. “But I would love to raise my family, when I have one, at St. Anthony’s and just say, ‘This is where I went to church when I was little. Your grandma made her first Communion here.’

“[I want to] help them make all the different connections that I’ve had.” †