Perry County parish has nurtured families of faith for 150 years

Members of Holy Cross Parish in St. Croix in the Tell City Deanery pose in front of their parish church in 1960 during a celebration of the centennial of its founding. Current parishioners celebrated the 150th anniversary of its founding with a festive Mass on Oct. 10. (Submitted photo)

By Sean Gallagher

ST. CROIX—Many parishes in southwestern Indiana were founded by German-speaking immigrants who moved to the area in the mid-19th century.

Holy Cross Parish in St. Croix bucked that trend. It was founded in 1860 in large part by Irish immigrants who settled in Perry County.

But the faith community has never had a large number of households on its membership rolls unlike large, ethnically German or Swiss parishes in nearby Tell City, Ferdinand or Jasper.

Holy Cross has never had a school or a bustling array of ministries. But it has remained dear to the hearts of the families who have made it their spiritual home over the past century and a half.

“It was a central part of our lives,” said Joseph LaGrange, 70, a lifelong member of the parish. “ … We lived in the country. There weren’t a lot of other things going on. So our life centered around our family and the Church.”

As a young boy, LaGrange soon found himself taking an active role in the life of the parish.

“I used to walk [to church] to serve at Mass back when I was in grade school and high school,” he said. “During the week, we’d have daily Mass and me and various other [altar] servers would take turns. We’d have to walk up and walk back.”

The faith that was instilled in LaGrange at the parish and in his family remained strong when he studied to become a teacher at Hanover College in Hanover.

“I would hitchhike to Madison to go to Mass every Sunday,” LaGrange said. “I’d catch a ride however I could. That was from what was instilled in me as a youth.”

LaGrange is a retired principal of Perry Central High School in nearby Leopold. But he is still active at Holy Cross, where he serves as the president of the parish council and sings in the choir.

Other members of his family are also active parishioners, including his niece, Tina Goffinet, 43, who helped organize the celebration of the parish’s 150th anniversary Mass, which was held on Oct. 10.

Even though Goffinet moved away from St. Croix and now lives nearly 20 miles away in Ferdinand, her heart is still in the parish of her youth.

“I couldn’t cut ties with Holy Cross,” she said. “ … It’s just a large part of who we are. I just feel really strongly about continuing there.”

Like her uncle, the parish became an integral part of Goffinet’s life through the influence of her parents.

“I saw them making it a center of their lives,” Goffinet said. “We had religion classes weekly. And under no

circumstances did we miss [it], even if we came home and said, ‘Mom, I have a test and I need to stay home and study.’ They would say, ‘Religion class is going to help you more with that test than any studying you’d do if you stayed home.’ ”

But it wasn’t just her own family that helped Goffinet come to love Holy Cross. It was the care and concern that the parishioners showed for each other which led her to stay at the parish over the years.

“We have such a giving spirit,” she said. “It’s our Church family. When someone is ill or there’s an issue, everybody is praying and calling and checking.”

Another example of the parish being a family is the welcoming of new life among its members.

Father Aaron Pfaff, the administrator of Holy Cross Parish, said that a steady growth of young families in the parish shows signs of hope for its future.

“You go in and [see] a lot of youths praising God,” he said. “It’s part of the life of the parish. Young families, especially, are welcome. If a child is fussy, it’s never an issue.”

Father Pfaff, who is also the administrator of St. Augustine Parish in Leopold and St. Martin of Tours Parish in Siberia, is happy to see young people today—much like LaGrange did decades ago—move away to get a college education then come back to make Holy Cross their spiritual home.

“They stay in the parish, I think, because of the sense of the family faith that’s such a part of the parish,” he said. “I don’t think that they could imagine raising a family somewhere else, which is a healthy, good thing to see.”

Goffinet shares Father Pfaff’s joy at seeing new life in her parish.

“The last few years, it feels like we’ve really grown,” she said. “It’s more like we’re thriving.

“Hearing babies cry and seeing the young professionals join, it does your heart good. You feel like we’re growing or on an upswing.” †