St. Mary Parish is a pillar in the Greensburg community

Students at St. Mary School in Greensburg pose outside their school building in 1910 with the parish’s pastor, Father Lawrence Fichter. The Batesville Deanery parish is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding this year. (Submitted photo)

By Sean Gallagher

St. Mary Parish in Greensburg is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding this year.

It is a pillar in the Greensburg community, according to its administrator, Msgr. Harold Knueven.

He and other religious leaders in the town recently met with Greensburg’s mayor to discuss how the city can better serve the poor, who often come to faith communities for help.

In 2007, St. Mary Parish gave $10,000 in aid to those in need. Msgr. Knueven said the parish is respected in Greensburg.

“It’s a beacon of light and a beacon of hope for the community,” he said.

But it wasn’t always seen that way.

At 94, Henry Ernstes has been a member of St. Mary Parish for more than half its history.

Ernstes recalled that in the 1920s when he was a youngster, he attended a public grade school in a one-room schoolhouse in rural Decatur County. At the time, its only teacher was a Catholic.

Local members of the Ku Klux Klan apparently disapproved of the Catholic teacher.

“They burned a fiery cross across from the schoolhouse one night [in 1924],” Ernstes said.

Herb Scheidler, 81, said the Klan unsuccessfully tried to burn down St. Mary School around the same time.

Scheidler, a lifelong member of the parish, attended the school from

1932-40 and later served in the U.S. Army shortly after the end of World War II.

While in high school during the war, he saw the women of the parish join with other women in the broader community in aiding the home front.

“We had a lot of troop trains come through town,” Scheidler said. “And the ladies … always met the troop trains with cookies and goodies and all. I thought that was very impressive.”

He agreed with the conclusion of many historians that it was the patriotism shown by many Catholic soldiers and sailors like himself, and Catholics supporting the war effort from home that changed societal attitudes toward the Church so that, by 1960, a Catholic could be elected president.

Scheidler was twice elected a member of the Greensburg City Council.

But as much as he valued being a community leader, Scheidler said his parish was always high on his priority list.

“Parish life is very important to me,” he said. “We raised five children, and all of them went to St. Mary’s [School]. Our grandchildren are still going there.”

He also talked about the vibrant spiritual life of the parish.

In 1947, he was engaged to be married and wanted to buy a house instead of renting one.

In his effort to find an affordable home, he and his fiancée went to the weekly Friday novena prayer services at St. Mary Church.

“I’ll never, ever forget that,” Scheidler said. “It was nine consecutive Fridays. And on the Saturday morning after the ninth Friday, we found our house.”

It was the prayerfulness of the members of St. Mary Parish during that time that, in part, influenced Franciscan Sister Christine Ernstes, Henry Ernstes’ daughter, to discern a call to religious life.

“The example of prayer of the people and especially my parents and grandparents [influenced me],” said Sister Christine. “When there were 40 hours devotions, the church was packed. You saw the people coming to the church to pray.”

Sister Christine is now the parish life coordinator of Immaculate Conception Parish in nearby Millhousen, which will celebrate the 175th anniversary of its establishment next year, and of St. Denis Parish in Jennings County.

Approximately 800 St. Mary parishioners gathered on Sept. 7 at the Decatur County Fairgrounds in Greensburg to celebrate their faith community’s 150th anniversary. Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel, vicar general, was the principal celebrant at an anniversary Mass celebrated on the occasion.

“It was just a joyful celebration,” Scheidler said. “I was so glad to be able to witness it. I was pleased with the large turnout and the effort that went into it by the choirs. And Msgr. Schaedel does such a fantastic job.”

Although he goes far back into the parish’s history, Scheidler is not looking in the rearview mirror.

He is serving on a parish design committee that is helping make plans for a move of the entire Batesville Deanery parish campus to a 25-acre site that was donated to the parish and is a mile south of the current location.

“Since we are pretty active in this building program, I see so many young families really getting in there and taking part,” Scheidler said. “It thrills me to no end to see it.”

(For more information on St. Mary Parish in Greensburg, log on to www.stmarysgreensburg.com.) †