Recent Consolidations and Boundary Lines

St. Patrick and St. Hedwig combined 22 August 2024 — St. Casimir and St. Adalbert consolidated 1 July 2025

St. Patrick–St. Hedwig, 2024: St. Patrick Parish, founded by Irish and German immigrants in 1858, and St. Hedwig Parish, founded by Polish immigrants in 1877 across the street from it, had shared one pastoral staff since 2001. On the recommendation of their pastors, Bishop Rhoades decreed their merger in August 2024, and the two combined as one parish with two historic churches on 22 August 2024, as St. Patrick–St. Hedwig Parish. In the summer of 2025 Dominican Father Reginald Wolford became its pastor, the parish becoming a ministry of the Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great.

Saints Casimir and Adalbert, 2025: St. Casimir Parish (1899) and St. Adalbert Parish (1910), Polish parishes a mile apart on the west side that had shared a pastor, staff and ministries for years, were consolidated by a decree Bishop Rhoades signed on 7 April 2025, effective 1 July 2025, into the new Saints Casimir and Adalbert Parish. Both church buildings remain in use with unchanged Mass schedules; the decree joined the parishes’ assets, debts, councils and boundaries into one administration, on the pastor’s and councils’ recommendation, citing sustainability and the unity the two communities had already reached. In 2026 the South Bend Tribune reported a permanent partnership between the consolidated parish and The Catholic Initiative of the Pulte Family Charitable Foundation, approved by Bishop Rhoades and the Vatican, to fund restoration of St. Adalbert Church and a permanent maintenance endowment for both campuses.

St. Monica is Mishawaka: There is no St. Monica parish in South Bend. St. Monica’s is in Mishawaka, established by Bishop Alerding in 1915 for Catholics north of the St. Joseph River there, with its present church dedicated in 1927. It enters the South Bend record only as a neighbor: St. Matthew’s first pastor, Father Hammes, lived at Mishawaka’s St. Monica’s in 1921–22 while his own rectory was unbuilt.

St. Pius X is Granger: Boundary line only: St. Pius X Parish is in Granger, not South Bend — it grew from the Holy Cross ministry at St. Joseph’s Farm, was known as St. Joseph’s Farm Parish from 1936, and took the St. Pius X name with its Fir Road church in the 1950s.

Our Lady of Fatima: No parish of Our Lady of Fatima appears in the South Bend record consulted. The Fatima name in the area belongs to the Our Lady of Fatima Retreat House at Notre Dame, not to a territorial parish.

Sources:

1. St. Patrick–St. Hedwig Parish bulletin, mission statement, 2025–26 — the 1858 and 1877 foundings and the combination of the two parishes on 22 August 2024.
2. Today’s Catholic, “St. Adalbert, St. Casimir Parishes in South Bend to Consolidate,” 29 April 2025 — the 7 April 2025 decree, the 1 July 2025 effective date, and the terms of the consolidation.
3. Today’s Catholic, “Meet Dominican Father Reginald Wolford, the New Pastor of St. Patrick-St. Hedwig,” 10 June 2025 — the Dominican pastorate.
4. South Bend Tribune, “Pulte Family’s Catholic Initiative invests in two South Bend churches,” October 2026 — the Catholic Initiative partnership for Saints Casimir and Adalbert Parish.
5. Today’s Catholic, “St. Monica Parish celebrates 100th anniversary,” 31 August 2015, and “St. Monica looks to grow in prayer,” 1 September 2017 — St. Monica’s as a Mishawaka parish established in 1915.
6. Today’s Catholic, “In My Diocese: St. Pius X, Granger and St. Adalbert, South Bend,” 1 March 2017 — St. Pius X’s Granger location and St. Joseph’s Farm origins.