St. Casimir Parish — Warszawa

Committee formed 1896, first pastor appointed 1898 — combination church-school dedicated 4 March 1899, Dunham and Webster streets — present church blessed 15 November 1925 — consolidated with St. Adalbert effective 1 July 2025

Toward a southwest parish: Swastek names the St. Casimir district Warszawa. On 13 March 1893 Czyzewski announced at St. Hedwig that the Polish people living south of the Grand Trunk Railroad tracks should meet to choose a place for a church in their neighborhood. A committee formed in 1896, Frank Gonsiorowski president and Joseph Kalamaja secretary; on 2 March 1896 Bishop Joseph Rademacher viewed the proposed site and gave his permission. That year Czyzewski, anticipating the needs of Polish Catholics in southwestern South Bend, bought four lots on West Dunham and Webster streets. The parish has been staffed since its founding by the Congregation of Holy Cross, and is the second of South Bend’s four Polish parishes.

Founding — two years stand: The parish centennial was celebrated in 1998, and the parish history in encyclopedia form dates the founding to 1898: construction of the combined church and school began in April 1898 with the laying of the cornerstone. Alerding’s diocesan history heads the parish 1899, the genealogical parish page gives “Founded: 1899,” and Today’s Catholic’s 2025 consolidation report likewise dates St. Casimir to 1899, the year its first building was dedicated and its first Mass celebrated. The first pastor’s appointment is also given two ways: 11 June 1898 in the parish history in encyclopedia form, and 11 September 1898 in Alerding, both naming the Rev. Anthony Zubowicz, C.S.C., formerly Czyzewski’s assistant and director of St. Hedwig’s school. Masses were held at St. Hedwig for a short time while the building rose.

First building and school: The first building was a two-story brick church-school, 65 by 125 feet, costing 25,000 dollars, with six schoolrooms on the first story and a church seating 749 on the second. It was dedicated on 4 March 1899 by the Very Rev. John Guendling, administrator of the Diocese of Fort Wayne, and the first Mass was celebrated the same day; the main hall of the school building served as the church until the present church was built. The grade school opened in 1899 under the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, in Polish and English; Alerding’s later figures give 543 children and a congregation of 480 families, 2,595 souls, and enrollment reached 600 by 1910. Zubowicz resigned on 11 April 1899 and was succeeded by the Rev. Eligius Raczynski, C.S.C., who died suddenly on 11 June 1902; Zubowicz then took charge again.

Bloody Sunday, 1914: Zubowicz was moved to St. Hedwig in 1913 on Czyzewski’s death. His successor at St. Casimir, the Rev. W. T. Szalewski, C.S.C., was resented in part because he had barred uniformed members of the Polish Falcons of America from a funeral some years before, and because the parish council had wanted the assistant, the Rev. Leon P. Szybowicz, C.S.C., named pastor instead. Szalewski left in October 1913 under continuing harassment, Szybowicz was also removed, and the parish remained closed from October 1913 to February 1914. On Sunday 15 February 1914, an event afterward named Krwawa Niedziela, Bloody Sunday, a crowd of more than 1,000 people repulsed a squad of 23 police who attempted to install the newly appointed pastor, the Rev. Stanislaus Gruza, C.S.C., in the rectory; the fence and saplings were torn up, the rectory ransacked and statues hurled, and many were injured. Bishop Alerding obtained a restraining order against the trustees and 28 people were arrested; the charges were later dropped and Gruza took possession in late March. He left in the summer of 1915 and was succeeded without opposition by the Rev. Stanislaus Gorka, C.S.C. In the same February of 1914 a schismatic Polish National Catholic parish was established in St. Casimir’s neighborhood; Swastek puts the final defections at no more than 500 persons.

Present church: Under Gorka the parish rebuilt. A convent for the Sisters of the Holy Family was built in 1919, and a new church in 1924 at Dunham and Webster, on the lot that had seen the 1914 violence. The church, designed by Worthmann and Steinbach in the Polish Cathedral style, Romanesque with Italianate chandeliers, its exterior red brick, was blessed by Bishop John F. Noll on 15 November 1925. The Historic Preservation Commission gave the building its highest architectural ranking, 13 of 13; the church is the central property of the St. Casimir Parish Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 with 321 contributing buildings. The parish celebrated its golden jubilee in 1949, and, the church debt newly paid, the church was consecrated on 4 May 1949. The school then had 290 students.

Later course: Most of the men of the parish were factory workers, Studebaker and Oliver Farm Equipment the great employers within a mile; the bank crises of 1931 and 1932 left parish finances bleak into the 1940s. From the 1960s the neighborhood changed from mostly Polish to a mixture of Mexican, Polish, Black and other residents. In 1975 the Rev. Leo Wojciechowski, C.S.C., closed the parish school, which then had 156 students. Pastoral leadership was consolidated with St. Stephen Parish in 1994; the centennial year ran from 27 February 1997 to 8 March 1998. When St. Stephen was suppressed in 2003, St. Casimir began sharing its pastor and priests with St. Adalbert, the rectory at St. Adalbert and, from 2009, a joint parish office there. A Spanish-language Mass added in 2005 became a source of growing membership. The Rev. Paul Ybarra, C.S.C., was appointed in July 2016 and the Rev. Ryan Pietrocarlo, C.S.C., in July 2020.

Consolidation: By decree signed by Bishop Rhoades on 7 April 2025, St. Casimir and St. Adalbert were consolidated effective 1 July 2025 into a new parish named Saints Casimir and Adalbert Parish, on the recommendation of their shared pastor after consultation of both parish communities and the advice of both parish and finance councils, to ensure future sustainability, formalize an existing unity and simplify administration. Both church buildings remain in use for Masses, with no change to the Mass schedules planned, and the new parish took up both parishes’ assets and debts. Its boundaries run from the New York Central Railroad on the north and South Arnold Street on the east to Sample Street and the Grand Trunk Railroad on the south and Falcon Street on the west.

Sources:

1. H. J. Alerding, The Diocese of Fort Wayne, 1857–1907, St. Casimir history, as transcribed for the St. Joseph County genealogical pages — the parish headed 1899, Czyzewski’s 1896 purchase of the Dunham and Webster lots, Zubowicz’s appointment dated 11 September 1898, the church-school’s size, cost and seating, the dedication of 4 March 1899, the succession of 1899–1902, and the school and congregation figures; with the 1941 Noll supplement for Gorka’s 1919 convent and 1924 church.
2. St. Casimir Parish history, as summarized in the parish’s encyclopedia entry from its centennial histories of 1998 — founding in 1898, the Warszawa name, the 1893 announcement and 1896 committee and episcopal permission, construction begun April 1898, Zubowicz appointed 11 June 1898, the school under the Nazareth Sisters reaching 600 by 1910, the 1913–1914 dispute, the Polish Falcons grievance and the Bloody Sunday riot of 15 February 1914, the church blessed 15 November 1925 and consecrated 4 May 1949, the 1975 school closing, and the shared pastorate with St. Adalbert from 2003.
3. Rev. Joseph Swastek, “The Poles in South Bend to 1914” — St. Casimir’s dedicated in 1899, its district named Warszawa, and the February 1914 schism in its neighborhood with defections of no more than 500.
4. St. Casimir Parish Historic District, National Register record — the district centered on St. Casimir Church, the church built 1924–1925, and listing in 1997.
5. Today’s Catholic, “In My Diocese: St. Casimir,” 31 January 2017 — the parish as a Holy Cross offshoot of St. Hedwig, Masses first held in the 1899 school building, the present church built in the 1920s, and the school closed in 1975.
6. Today’s Catholic, “St. Adalbert, St. Casimir Parishes in South Bend to Consolidate,” 29 April 2025 — St. Casimir dated to 1899 and St. Adalbert to 1910, the decree signed 7 April 2025 effective 1 July 2025 creating Saints Casimir and Adalbert Parish, both buildings retained, and the new parish boundaries.