Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend

Founded 1922, diocese-wide — this county's share of a fourteen-county body

Founding: Catholic Charities is a diocesan body, seated in Fort Wayne and serving fourteen counties including this one; its record belongs to both cities' accounts, and Fort Wayne's carries it from its seat. The agency's own published history gives the founding: in 1922 Bishop Herman J. Alerding, seeing the need to organize the Church's charitable work across a diocese that then covered the northern half of Indiana, established Associated Catholic Charities, which became Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend. The diocese itself took the two cities' names in 1960. The agency celebrated its centennial on 21 April 2022; its chief executive, Dan Florin, put its first century's reach at more than 750,000 people impacted — the organization's own figure, printed as its own. It runs more than twenty programs across stability, migration, pro-life and counseling services. A South Bend office's separate founding is not documented in the sources reached for this account; what is documented is a century of diocesan charity in which St. Joseph County has stood since the first day, because the diocese that founded the agency was this county's diocese too.

Sources:

1. Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend (ccfwsb.org), "A Legacy of Hope" — the 1922 founding by Bishop Herman J. Alerding as Associated Catholic Charities; the centennial of 21 April 2022; the 750,000 people impacted, per CEO Dan Florin; the twenty-plus programs.
2. Today's Catholic, 1 May 2022 — the centennial coverage and Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades's history of the founding.