An Indiana parish that ran to the National Catholic Reporter to stir up animosity against the Latin Mass community found out this week it will be closed due to lack of vitality.
On Sunday, the parish officially announced it would be closing sometime in 2026, following a series of discussions with other churches in the area over how to address demographic changes and a declining number of priests.
Yet things could have gone so differently.
St. Joseph’s Church in Hammond, just across the Illinois border from where the new pope grew up in Dolton, originally was set to host an Institute of Christ the King community. Under then-Bishop Donald Hying, the ICKSP offered Sunday and weekday Masses, while the parish continued Novus Ordo masses. Photos show a goodly number of faithful attending.
However, the aging community in place complained to the National Catholic Reporter and succeeded in getting a hit piece published there in 2019. The backlash led to Bishop Hying reducing the ICKSP’s Mass schedule to Sundays and Holy Days of obligation.
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