St. Malachy parishioners break ground for new church

Preparing to break ground for the new St. Malachy Church in Brownsburg on June 24 are, from left, Michael Eagan, lead architect, Entheos Architects; Kevin Stuckwisch, liturgical consultant, Entheos Architects; Richard Judd, building committee chairman; Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein; Father Daniel Staublin, pastor; Mark Kramer, Pastoral Council chairman; Rob Damler, planning committee chairman; and Paul Toddy, senior project manager, Meyer Najem.

By Mary Ann Wyand

BROWNSBURG—A wee bit of Ireland, a sprinkling of the “old sod,” provided a symbolic and historic foundation for the site of the new St. Malachy Church during a June 24 groundbreaking ceremony at a Hendricks County farm donated to the parish.

Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein helped Father Daniel Staublin, St. Malachy’s

pastor for 11 years, break ground for the $8.5 million church as Father Peter Gallagher, associate pastor, and several hundred parishioners applauded the beginning of Phase I of the building project.

The parish was founded by Irish

immigrants in 1869 on Green Street in Brownsburg.

St. Malachy’s new worship space will seat 1,500 people and will be the largest church in the archdiocese when it is dedicated in November 2008 at 9833 E. County Road 750 North.

Lifetime St. Malachy parishioner Marie (Quinn) Bersot of Brownsburg donated 40 acres of land that she and her late husband, George, farmed for 46 years so the rapidly growing Indianapolis West Deanery parish community can expand the church and later build a larger school.

“It’s a great, great privilege to be with you as we celebrate a new moment in the history of this parish community,” Archbishop Buechlein told St. Malachy parishioners at the start of Mass on the feast of the birth of St. John the Baptist.

“It’s remarkable the growth that has happened here in your community,” the archbishop said. “I was here 40 years ago as a new priest to replace the pastor for a weekend that he was away. … And now, of course, you’re a great, large parish community. [Your] faith has stood you well, but you still have a mission … a mission to move this community as best we can with deep faith to a new place. It will be wonderful to bless that site after Mass today.”

During his homily, Archbishop Buechlein explained that “Father Dan [Staublin] reminded me that nine years ago on this day we were on a pilgrimage in the Holy Land and we visited the birthplace of John the Baptist.”

Like that great prophet, he said, every Catholic is called to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others.

“John’s mission was to prepare the way for Christ,” Archbishop Buechlein said. “His mission was to point out Jesus the Christ to the world. Sisters and brothers, that is our mission as well.”

Remember that “everything flows from prayer,” the archbishop said. “Today we pray that by God’s grace we might help give definition to the face of Jesus among us. Your new parish church, for which we break ground in a little while, will be a new home … for your collective mission as a people of faith in this community. It’s a great act of faith we make today as we move out to bless the new property.”

As Archbishop Buechlein prepared to break ground on the site of the archdiocese’s newest church, he said he is

“conscious of the fact, on an occasion like this, that we stand on the shoulders of those who first came to this part of Indiana and brought the faith.

“And now today we are the shoulders for future generations, for our children and our children’s children,” he said. “This will be a great gift we offer to them, and they will carry it forward. So let’s pray for those who built in the past, let’s pray for those who will help us build now and let’s pray for all those who come to make this their church home in the future.”

Michael Eagan, a partner with Entheos Architects in Indianapolis and principal architect for the expansion project, said the brick and masonry church will feature a

70-foot-tall cupola above the altar to let

sunlight illuminate the sanctuary and pews arranged in a circular design.

He said the design will “gather the congregation around the altar so people feel like they are at the [Lord’s] table.”

Phase I of the project is expected to take 16 to 18 months, Father Staublin said. Plans for this expansion began with a feasibility study in 1999 as St. Malachy’s membership continued to grow rapidly.

Phase II involves the construction of a larger school, parish office and rectory at the new site, he said. “We will begin the campaign to raise that money in 2009. Monies from the sale of the current site will go into that phase.”

The school and parish office will remain at the current location until building funds are available, he said. For the past several years, school enrollment has been at or near capacity.

After the new church is dedicated next year, Father Staublin said, the current church building at 326 N. Green St. will be used as a chapel for school Masses.

“We explored the option of expanding on our current site in those early planning stages,” he said, “but we couldn’t acquire enough adjacent land around us so that precipitated the need to move [the parish].

“It’s a privilege … to be with this community at this time,” Father Staublin said. “Prior to when the parish was founded in 1869, the parishioners would go to St. John Church in Indianapolis. … Occasionally, a priest would come out to Hendricks County and say Mass for the Irish farmers that lived out here. One of the homes that he would visit, the Quinn family’s farm, was on the site that we’re moving to … so we’re going home. St. Malachy [Parish] is going back to where it started, where one of the first Masses was celebrated in Hendricks County, with our new church. It’s providential.”

During a telephone interview on June 25, Marie Bersot said she is excited about the construction of the church on her family’s farmland.

“It makes me happy,” she said of her generous gift to the archdiocese. “I’m glad that the church is going to be built there. The land belonged to my Grandfather Quinn. My father bought it from him … then I inherited it.”

The current parish property on Green Street, which is adjacent to the site of St. Malachy’s first frame church and the second brick church, was also part of the Quinn family’s property.

“I was baptized there,” Bersot said of the old brick church. “I was confirmed there, and I got married there.”

During Mass one Sunday, she recalled, “Father Dan [Staublin] asked somebody to donate 20 acres for the church,” she said. “I had been thinking about it so I donated the land. They’re sure growing and will keep growing, too.” †