WHY DID WHITING HAVE FIVE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCHES?
John Hmurovic
May 2022

At its peak, the Whiting-Robertsdale community had around 25,000 residents. Most were Roman Catholics, but there were many Protestants, Jews, and people with other, or no, religious affiliation. For that size of population, five Roman Catholic churches were a lot, and all were less than a mile away from another one. The reason for so many, lies in our community’s diverse ethnic roots.

St. John was Slovak, and so was Immaculate Conception. St. Adalbert was Polish. Sts. Peter & Paul was Croatian.  Sacred Heart was Irish. That was common knowledge if you lived in Whiting at any time in the first 75 years of the last century.

For those who weren’t here then we have some facts to back this up, courtesy of a 1958 door-to-door parish census done for the Catholic Diocese. Researchers went to 5,588 houses in Whiting-Robertsdale to get a better understanding of Catholic churchgoers. Looking back, their findings show how much has changed.

In 1958, 60-percent of Whiting-Robertsdale residents were Catholics who attended one of the community’s five parishes. Of the rest, 33-percent were Protestants, one-percent Jews, two-percent claimed no religion, and four-percent belonged to other religions. Based on other findings, the report predicted that the number of Catholics would shrink, and some parishes might suffer from the decline. Today, two of those parishes are gone, their buildings torn down: Sts. Peter & Paul was on Center Street, Immaculate Conception was on White Oak Avenue.

The main reason the report predicted there would be fewer Catholics was the aging of the population in 1958. Many of the parishioners were elderly immigrants who came to Whiting in the boom years of Standard Oil, when 9,000 people worked at the refinery, compared to less than 2,000 today.

They came here from many countries, but the majority came to Whiting-Robertsdale from Slovakia and Poland. The 1910 Census shows that nearly 70-percent of Whiting’s residents were either born in a different country or were the children of someone born outside the United States. The 1920 Census shows that of those who were born overseas, 62-percent came from Slovakia, Poland, or Croatia. There was no city in the United States that had a higher percentage of Slovaks than Whiting. In fact, in 1920, 24 of the 48 states that were then in the union had fewer Slovaks than Whiting.

The 1958 parish census found that our “common knowledge” was accurate. Immaculate Conception was 78-percent Slovak; St. Adalbert, 76-percent Polish; Sts. Peter & Paul, 65-percent Croatian; St. John, 61-percent Slovak; and, Sacred Heart had a wider mix, but the Irish were most numerous, at 21-percent.    

Why were the parishes so closely tied to particular ethnic groups? The best answer is that when people leave home for the United States, they become outsiders. They don’t speak the English language well, don’t share the customs, and when they look around their new community they don’t see much that reminds them of home. But the Catholic Church was familiar. It was no different here than it was in the villages they left behind. It gave them a link to the world they came from. Even better, by forming Slovak, Polish, or Croatian parishes, they were able to interact with others from their home countries.

“The Polish immigrant faced problems he never had encountered in his homeland,” wrote former Calumet College instructor Paulette Pogorzelski Bannec, in a statement that also applies to Slovaks and other immigrants. “Hence, the immigrant found comfort with those who understood his language, shared his style of dress, enjoyed the same food, practiced the same customs, and celebrated the same holidays.”

The same thoughts were echoed in the “History of S.S. Peter and Paul Church of Whiting.” It was not easy, the author said, “for these people to learn the English language, and a national parish with a Croatian speaking pastor would be a genuine boost to their spiritual life.”

That’s why the Slovaks, Poles, and Croatians all sought a church of their own in Whiting. Around 1900, for instance, there were about 35 Polish families in Whiting. There were other Catholic churches in Whiting, but Sacred Heart parishioners were English-speaking, and St. John was the church of the more numerous Slovak population. So many of the Polish residents traveled to Hammond, East Chicago, or into Chicago to feel at home among Polish churchgoers. In those days, a trip to any of those locations was a lengthy journey. The Poles of Whiting decided they wanted their own church and school close to home.

The ethnic churches were led by priests who not only spoke the language, but did much more than say Mass. Priests like Rev. Benedict Rajcany at St. John, and Rev. John Lach at Immaculate Conception, for instance, were major figures in the community because they helped their parishioners become American, while also helping them celebrate their Slovak heritage. They built bridges between the old world and the new for thousands of Slovak immigrants.

As the generation of immigrants got older, their children and grandchildren no longer had a strong need to attend a Polish, Slovak, or Croatian church. “Up until the 1950s,” Lucille Federenko wrote in the 75th anniversary program of St. Adalbert, “all church devotions were held in Latin or in Polish.” Father Walter Pawlicki felt that “the older generation could always be counted on to come to services, despite weather, health, or the language spoken.” But Polish was not taught in the schools, and not needed in the daily lives of the younger generations. Gradually, the Catholic churches of Whiting lost much of their ethnic identity.       

This year, two of Whiting’s Catholic parishes celebrate anniversaries: St. John was founded 125 years ago, St. Adalbert 120 years ago. The story of both parishes can be seen in a new exhibit at the Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society Museum. It runs through the month of June. The museum is open on Sundays between noon and 4 P.M. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.