St. Matthias Roman Catholic Church
101 W. Burrell Drive
Crown Point, IN 46307

219-663-2201

Fr. James E. Wozniak, Pastor

Gregory Fabian, Deacon

Jim DeSales, Visiting Deacon

Life of St. Matthias

St. Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius and St. Jerome say that according to tradition Matthias was one of the seventy-two whom Christ sent out, two by two, during his ministry to preach and to heal the sick. From the Acts of the Apostles we know that St. Matthias was with Christ from the time of His Baptism until the time of His Ascension. When St. Peter announced that they must choose a successor for Judas (Acts I; 15-21), two were selected, Matthias and Barnabas. After the Apostles prayed, they cast lots and Matthias was chosen. After this time he was always numbered among the twelve. He received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost with the other eleven. St. Matthias preached the Gospel in Judea. Then he is believed to have established the Faith in Cappodocia and on the coast of the Caspian Sea. (Cappodocia is in Asia Minor. Greece and Turkey are now the countries or territory today in which he preached.) He was martyred at Colchis. His body for a long time was in Jerusalem. It is believed to have been brought to Rome by St. Helena.

History of our Parish:
On September 14, 1966, the Reverend John J. Strebig arrived at St. Mary Parish, Crown Point, IN to begin a dual assignment -- to serve as assistant pastor and, more importantly, to begin organizing a new parish from the southern section of St. Mary's -- a necessity due to the population shift to South County. This brand new parish would be 83rd in the Diocese of Gary. The first meeting to organize the new parish took place on September 27, 1966.

The Bishop permitted the parish to choose its name provided the selection was the name of an apostle who was not already selected the patron of a parish in the Diocese. In December of 1966, St. Matthias was chosen as the name of our parish.

The Franciscan Sisters at St. Anthony Rest Home generously granted permission for us to conduct services in their chapel. On January 8, 1967, St. Matthias parish met for the first time in St. Anthony's Chapel. Seven hundred persons attended the four Masses on that Sunday.

In the summer of 1967, the men of the parish painted and remodeled the house already existing on the property, for the parish rectory. The following year, the garage was built. In September 1967, our CCD Program for grades 1-12 was begun. In June of 1969, work began on our first building. Architects selected an all-purpose type of structure to be used as temporary quarters. On November 29, 1970, we moved into our newly constructed building which was dedicated and blessed by Bishop Grutka.

In 1976, parishioners began dreaming about building a church. After much planning and fund raising, groundbreaking for our new church took place on Sunday, March 14, 1982. The new church seated approximately 725 people. Dedication of the church was on Sunday, May 22, 1983. Our multipurpose building is now used for Religious Education classes, parish activities, and also made available for community functions.

Father Strebig's last major accomplishment was the installation of our church pews before being transferred to St. Bridget's in Hobart in 1985. He was replaced by Father Timothy E. Bernante. Father Tim moved the parish office from the rectory to the parish hall. Our first parish carnival was held on the parish grounds at the encouragement of Father Tim to further unify our parish. On June 5th, Father Tim died of heart failure after a long illness. He had just completed three years as our pastor. Father Charles Niblick, who had been our assistant for three years, was appointed interim administrator for the parish. The Reverend Gerald H. Schweitzer assumed his duties as pastor on September 7, 1988.

Improvements continued in 1989 with additional parking around the church. Two new positions were created - A Youth Director and Director of Adult Religious Education. During 1990, the parish carnival was canceled and a one day parish picnic was renewed for all parishioners.

In the summer of 1994, Father Terry Steffens, who had served as the assistant at St. Michael's, took over the reins of St. Matthias. Under Father Terry's leadership and inspiration we increased our community outreach with such programs as our food pantry and migrant ministry. With Father Terry's guidance and patience, the Pastoral Council concept was developed and is operational within our parish.

Currently, Fr. James Wozniak is our pastor and will be leading us forward spiritually. Fr. Jim was previously an Associate Pastor most recently at Nativity of Our Savior in Portage, Indiana.

St. Matthias Church Properties:
St. Matthias Church, Parish Hall and Rectory are located on twenty acres of land that is owned by St. Matthias/Diocese of Gary. This land is within the city limits of Crown Point, Indiana and is located on the city's south side. It is bordered by 125th Avenue/Burrell Drive on the north and situated between Main Street on the east and Marshall Street on the west. Recently, due to unforeseen events here at the parish a new rectory for Fr. Jim was constructed behind the Church and Hall.

The neighbors to St. Matthias consist of Eisenhower Elementary School to the northeast, St. Anthony's Hospital Campus to the north, the South lake YMCA to the northeast and Crown Point High School to the south and east.

The St. Matthias facilities are served by Crown Point city water and sewage and NIPSCO electric and natural gas.

Buildings:
We are proud to say that our parish has completed construction of our beautiful new rectory which is located just behind the church and hall. The old rectory was located on the corner of Marshall Street and Burrell Drive, was in dire need of repairs and became uninhabitable.

The parish hall was constructed in 1970. Its lower area roof was replaced in 1986, and the upper area roof was replaced in 1987. The building layout consists of the main hall which also serves as the parish meeting hall, temporary classrooms for religious education, community functions, and rental space for catering and other events. The hall will seat approximately 300 people. There is a limited service kitchen attached to the main hall, a mid-sized meeting room, two, smaller rooms adjacent to either side of a raised curtained stage area, with staff administrative offices and the Pastor's office located off the main entrance to the hall. The main heating plant was replaced recently.

Parking lot and grounds: We have just under two acres of paved parking area, most of which was originally laid in 1970 with the remaining laid in 1983. Our walk-way and building entrances are handicap accessible, and our outside area is lighted for ease of service and to provide security. We have a ball field on the west side of our hall and a mowed and maintained lawn area that is used for various functions. The majority of our property is well-seeded and landscaped to provide a pleasant atmosphere to our parish grounds.