Saint Michael The Archangel, Parish History

Our Heritage, Our Faith, and Our Promise . . . Rooted in Love

The Saint Michael story began in the later 1800’s when Schererville was mostly farmland and rolling prairie. Forced to travel to distant churches over bad roads with only primitive transportation, the German Catholic pioneers of the fledging town petitioned Bishop Dwenger of Fort Wayne for the establishment of a parish in Schererville in 1873. Permission was granted and a church was constructed on land donated by the town founder, Nicholas Scherer. On September 29, 1874, the feast day of St. Michael, our first church was blessed and a parish of eighty families was formed. These first parishioners possessed a faith that was central to their lives.

Fr. Gottfried Kueng became our first pastor in 1875 and that same year a new rectory was built. History was made when Bishop Dwenger appointed Fr. William Berg as pastor on May 28, 1881. Fr. Berg would go on to serve our faith family for 48 years. He was to become one of the most remarkable and renowned figures in Schererville history. During his tenure many improvements to our church were made, among them a new altar and new windows. A great believer in Catholic education, in 1886, Fr. Berg arranged for Franciscan Sisters to teach in the town school. On September 16, 1900, St. Michael School opened as a full time parochial school.

A tragic event occurred on September 27, 1893; extensive vandalism was discovered in the church and in cemetery. Two lay religious brothers from The Divine Word Society were deeply moved when they heard about this vandalism. Even though they usually worked in seminaries and motherhouses, they came to our cemetery and helped erect Mount Calvary, cast and installed the Stations of the Cross, the Lourdes Grotto, the Garden of Gethsemane Grotto and the Resurrection Grotto. They worked as a team with Brother Fridolin Ifen’s specialty being grotto design and construction and Brother Paul Tanner’s specialty being the sculpting of statues and crafting the reliefs found outside and inside the Grottos.

By 1920, the St. Michael Community had grown to approximately 400 parishioners and Monsignor Berg, recognizing that the 50 year old church building was becoming too small to meet the needs of the parishioners, began plans for the new church. With each influx of population this once little country parish struggled to be home to them all. By the time of our 100th anniversary, St. Michael parish had grown to 734 families and had a school enrollment of approximately 400 students. Over the ensuing years, St. Michael Parish has been honored with the foresight and leadership of many wonderful pastors. We have also been blessed with a faith community dedicated to sharing their time, treasure and talent.

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Pastors of St. Michael Parish

Who Is St. Michael?