St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church (1957)

Catholic parish of the northeast side · established 7 June 1957 · 4916 Trier Road · active, November 2026

Catholic parish of the northeast side, at 4916 Trier Road. St. Charles Borromeo Parish was established on 7 June 1957 by Bishop Leo A. Pursley, the seventy-ninth parish founded in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, with Father Edward I. Hession as its first pastor. The founding membership numbered 252 families.

The school came almost at once. Fifteen months after the founding, in September 1958, St. Charles School opened its doors to 247 students in six classrooms, grades 1 through 6, staffed by the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart and lay teachers. Enrollment grew steadily, and the campus added facilities in 1959, 1960, 1963, 1965 and 1977. The convent was completed in 1962, and in 1966 the priests moved into a new rectory that also housed the parish office.

The parish's Christmas furnishings carry its earliest church history. A set of ceramic Nativity figures was first displayed at the original church's first midnight Mass, on Christmas Eve 1958. The small first church was already straining: within a few years Mass was also being said in an all-purpose room next door. Then, at midnight on 28 December 1963, fire gutted the church. The building was restored through the work of Father Hession and parishioners, and the crèche figures, damaged in the fire, were painted gold in time for Christmas 1964. The charred crucifix at the main entrance of the present church is kept as a memorial of that night.

In 1969 the parish sent out a daughter of its own: Our Lady of Good Hope, established with nearly 300 of St. Charles's families inside new boundaries. Even after the division, 1,060 families remained, and a larger church was needed. Father Hession proposed building in 1973; a parish survey found 71 percent in favor, and the design chosen was fan-shaped, seating 1,400. The first Mass in the present church was celebrated at midnight on Christmas Eve 1975, and an estimated 2,000 worshipers crowded into the opening services. The church was dedicated on 25 January 1976.

Father Hession retired in 1986, after twenty-nine years, from what the parish history calls the largest parish in the diocese, and lived in a home near the church. Father John N. Suelzer became the second pastor. In 1995 both men were raised to the rank of Monsignor. Ground was broken in 1996 for the Hession Parish Center, which gave the parish meeting rooms and the school a new office, a gym and multipurpose room, and expanded classrooms. A new and larger rectory was built on Reed Road in 2005, and the original rectory became the parish offices. Monsignor Hession died on 14 February 2006. A new kindergarten wing opened for the 2009-2010 school year, and a gathering space and new entrance, with meeting rooms, a sacristy, a nursery and a choir room, were dedicated in December 2015.

Monsignor Suelzer died unexpectedly on 24 August 2016, and an overflow crowd, the bishop and more than fifty priests attended his funeral Mass. Father Tom Shoemaker became the third pastor on 1 October 2016. At the parish's sixtieth anniversary in 2017, Today's Catholic counted 2,100 registered families, and the school, then led by principal Robert Sordelet, enrolled more than 700 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The sanctuary closed for renovation after Christmas 2021, with Masses held in the school gymnasium through the winter; marble and religious art were added, and Bishop Kevin Rhoades dedicated the renovated church in June 2022. The restored 1958 crèche figures, brought back for the sixtieth anniversary, are part of the parish's Christmas again. The parish remains active through 2026 at 4916 Trier Road, on ground filed in St. Joseph Township inside the present city limits.

One conflict in print: Today's Catholic's sixtieth-anniversary profile (16 May 2017) says the first Mass was celebrated on Christmas Day 1958 and that "the next year" the school opened with 247 students. The parish's own history dates the school's opening, with the same 247 students, to September 1958, fifteen months after the founding. This page follows the parish history on the school year and prints the newspaper's version here rather than silently.

Sources:

1. St. Charles Borromeo Parish, "A Brief History of Saint Charles Borromeo Parish" (parish history, stcharlesfortwayne.org, read November 2026).
2. "St. Charles Borromeo is an active, thriving parish," Today's Catholic, 16 May 2017.
3. "Distressed crèche restored at St. Charles Borromeo," Today's Catholic, 19 December 2017.
4. St. Charles Borromeo Parish, 50th anniversary of the church dedication, anniversary video post, 28 January 2026 (dedication date of 25 January 1976; the 1973 proposal, the 71 percent survey, the fan-shaped design).
5. Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana, St. Joseph Township churches page (established June 1957 by Bishop Pursley; the seventy-ninth parish of the diocese).