Welcome
About Us
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Address: 610 S. 6th St.
Clinton, Indiana 47842
Phone: (765) 832-8468
Fax: (765) 832-5092
Email: sacredheartclinton@sbcglobal.net
Office Hours: Monday-Thursday 9:30am-3:30pm
Friday 9:30 am-1:00 pm
Mass Times: Thursday 9:00 am, Friday 9:00 am, Saturday 4:30 pm, Sunday 9:00 am
Confession Times: Saturday 3:30-4:00 PM
St. Joseph Catholic Church
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Address: 201 E. Ohio St.
Rockville, IN 47872
Phone: (765) 569-5406
Email: saintjosephrockville@gmail.com
Office Hours: By appointment only
Mass Times: Tuesday 5:30 pm,
Wednesday 9:00 am, Sunday 11:15 am
Confession Times: Tuesday 4:30 pm
Saturday Mass: May-October 6:30 pm
Additional Website: www.stjosephrockville.com
Our Parish Priest
Rev. Joby Abraham Puthussery
Father Joby was born in 1972 as the youngest of seven children to Abraham and Rosy Puthussery in the state of Kerala in South India. He left home at the age of fifteen to become a missionary in the mission lands of Manipur, which is one of the seven states in North East India that shares a border with Myanmar (previously called Burma). After his formation in various seminaries in North East India, he was ordained a priest for the Archdiosese of Impal, Manipur, in 1999. As a priest, he worked in the Archdiocese of Impal in various capacities as pastor of different parishes and as a principal of various schools among people belonging to different tribes, and having multiple languages, dialects and cultures. He decided to continue his ministry in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis at the invitation of Archbishop Charles Thompson in 2018. After rendering his service as associate pastor at Saint Luke the Evangelist Catholic Church in Indianapolis since August 2018, he was appointed as the administrator (pastor) of Sacred Heart Parish, Clinton and Saint Joseph Parish, Rockville in August 2020.
Church History
Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart
In 1883, Clinton was a mission of Montezuma with the Rev. T. O. Donahue as the the mission priest. Th Clinton area remained a mission until 1889 when Rev. Joseph T. Baur was commisioned to organize a parish.
The church which serves the town of Clinton, Indiana was dedicated on June 13, 1909 as Sacred Heart Church, modeled after the Cathedral if Thurles in Ireland.
Fr. William Maher became pastor 1906, as a member of the Holy Ghost Congregation, working from St. Mary-of-the-Woods. He served as fifth and last pastor of St. Patrick Church/Parish established in 1891 on the corner of Water an Main Streets. A second later structure was built in 1894 on the corner of 6th and Nebeker and served the community until 1909.
The beginning of the 1900's saw the make-up of the city move from Irish/German to a high percentage of Italians who called for the new church to reflect a more neutral ethnic flavor.
In 1889, 300 persons served by and formed the first Catholic Church in the Clinton community. The Sacred Heart Parish of 1909 saw membership grow to 2000 members with overall membership peaking in the 1920s. Sacred Heart Parish today serves 304 families.
St. Joseph
Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart
According to a history compiled in 1957 by then-pastor Father Flavian Strange, the parish was founded as a mission church by Father Meinrad McCarthy. It would not have its own pastor until 1904, and even then, there was a time between 1917-1947 when the parish did not have a resident pastor.
By 1879, the parish’s congregation numbered 18 families. The railroad industry kept Rockville steadily growing, increasing from a population of 1,187 in 1870—three years after the parish was founded—to 2,045 in 1900, keeping the congregation on the rise. The parish history notes that in 1955, due to crowding in the church building, the parish was given permission by the apostolic delegate to Washington to hold three Masses on Sundays and holy days of obligation.
According to an additional history of St. Joseph from 1957-1992 compiled by parishioner Sharie Law, “From the moment of its founding in February 1968, the mission of the parish council was to research the possibility of replacing the old frame [church] building that had been erected in 1886.”
Their planning proved fortuitous when, in February 1970, the church was damaged from a fire that gutted a gas station immediately next to the 1886 structure. The gas station was built on the church property in 1933 when the parish leased a corner of its lot.
By June 1971, $130,000 had been raised for the structure that now stands along U.S. 36. The construction cost of $290,000 was paid off by 1975.
Meanwhile, money was raised for the former wood-frame church to be moved down the road to Billie Creek Village, a site in Rockville comprised of historic structures relocated for preservation. According to Law’s history, the move was made possible thanks to “a last-minute [financial] intervention by Tony Hulman” of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology fame.
The 1886 structure was restored., A call to Billie Creek Village confirmed that, as funds diminished and the historic site’s hours were cut back, the church has unfortunately fallen into disrepair.
A portion of the money to build the new church and move the older one came from the parish’s main annual fundraiser: selling crullers during the Covered Bridge Festival.
St. Joeseph in Rockville is the only Catholic church in Parke County, but it draws abouth 93 families throughout some of 15 towns in Parke and Vermillion Counties.