Hospitality is a defining trait of Edinburgh parish as it marks 175 years
Members of Holy Trinity Parish in Edinburgh take part on Aug. 23 in a eucharistic procession following a Mass to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Seymour Deanery faith community. (Submitted photo)
By Sean Gallagher
The presence of the Church in Edinburgh goes back to the earliest days of its history in Indiana.
Mass first started to be celebrated there in 1837 while the Servant of God Bishop Simon Bruté was still serving as the first shepherd of the Diocese of Vincennes, which had been established just three years earlier. The Diocese of Vincennes later became the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
Holy Trinity Parish was founded in Edinburgh 14 years later in 1851. The Seymour Deanery faith community is thus celebrating the 175th anniversary of its founding this year. One celebration took place on Aug. 23 with a festive Mass and eucharistic procession. Another will occur on Nov. 7 when Archbishop Charles C. Thompson will be the principal celebrant of a Mass.
In the early days of Holy Trinity Parish, the priests who ministered in Edinburgh did not live there. They were based either in nearby Franklin or Columbus, or came by horseback all the way from Shelbyville, St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Shelby County or Rushville.
Although the mode of transportation has changed, priests who lead Holy Trinity today still travel to minister there from some other place. In fact, the parish had a resident pastor for only five years of its history, from 1868-73.
Because of that, the members of Holy Trinity have a long history of taking the initiative in caring for their parish.
Father Christopher Wadleton has experienced this since he began his leadership of the parish in 2025. Although he has served as pastor of St. Bartholomew Parish in Columbus since 2019, he doesn’t see leading Holy Trinity as an added burden to his ministry.
“They take ownership of their own faith,” Father Wadleton said of Holy Trinity’s parishioners. “The members do everything in the parish. The amount of work for a pastor is fairly minimal, except helping to steer the ship. But they have a good handle on where they want the ship to go already.”
Father Paul Shikany, a retired archdiocesan priest who led Holy Trinity Parish from 1983-84 and 1987-2005, had a similar experience, noting that there was “good, strong leadership” among the parishioners in his time there.
Showing hospitality to people from around the world
It was during the time of Father Shikany’s ministry at Holy Trinity that a particular aspect of the life of the parish came to the fore: showing hospitality to a regular flow of visitors and newcomers, especially at nearby Camp Atterbury, a U.S. military installation operated by the Indiana National Guard.
Holy Trinity had long been the summer spiritual home of people spending time in cabins on nearby lakes. But after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the activity at Camp Atterbury, which was founded in 1941, increased greatly. Thousands of soldiers flowed in and out of the camp for training and preparation for overseas deployment.
Father Shikany recalled how he got a call on Easter Sunday in 2004 in which he learned that a “small group” of soldiers would come to Holy Trinity for Mass that day.
The small group ended up being two full busloads of soldiers, who, along with the parishioners gathered for the great feast, far exceeded the 125-person capacity of Holy Trinity Church.
Still, the parishioners welcomed the visitors, setting up a place in their parish hall for Mass to be celebrated for overflow congregation.
“I ended up doing two Masses at the same time,” recalled Father Shikany. “We didn’t have cameras [for livestreaming] in those days. So, I did the Liturgy of the Word in one room and then the Liturgy of the Word in the church. Then we switched back and forth.”
Twenty-five years since the attacks of 9/11, thousands of soldiers from many countries yearly come and go from Camp Atterbury between February and September, according to Holy Trinity parishioner Lynne Schaub, who is also a volunteer at the camp for the United States Organization, which provides support for U.S. military personnel and their families, as well as international soldiers training at U.S. military installations.
She said that some 40,000 soldiers have spent time at Camp Atterbury so far this year. While chaplains sometimes accompany these military personnel, Holy Trinity regularly has groups of soldiers come for Mass on Sundays.
Holy Trinity parishioners helped Camp Atterbury visitors of a different kind when some 7,500 refugees from Afghanistan were housed there for about nine months starting in September 2021.
“The parish kicked in and volunteered and donated beautifully,” said Father Wadleton of the parishioners’ efforts to aid the refugees.
Schaub described her faith community’s hospitality to those spending time at Camp Atterbury as “the nut in the shell” and is glad that she and her fellow Catholics in Edinburgh are “able to serve not only our own parishioners, but those who are just passing through.”
A ‘spirit of helping one another’
Around the same time that activity at the camp started ramping up after 9/11, Hispanic Catholics began to become part of the faith community at Holy Trinity. Unlike the visitors to Camp Atterbury, they weren’t just passing through but were seeking to put down roots in Edinburgh.
Barb Pierse, who had become a member of Holy Trinity just a few years before, was in a good position as a retired Spanish teacher to help the fledgling Hispanic community, both at the parish and in the broader community.
In the fall of 2001, she started an after-school English class for Hispanic children and youths at Holy Trinity.
“We’d have something to eat, then we would have a class and they would stay for Mass,” Pierse recalled. “After Mass, we had another meal.”
As Pierse’s help became known in the Hispanic community, more people reached out to her for help.
“People would come and knock on our door and introduce themselves,” she said. “One father said, ‘I want my children to meet their new grandmother.’ ”
As she came to know more of the growing Hispanic community in Edinburgh, “I always invited them to come to Mass,” Pierse said.
Amalia Cisneros has also experienced the hospitality of Holy Trinity. She and her husband Deacon Jorge Sanchez Leanos became part of the faith community in 2019 when her husband was in the archdiocesan deacon formation program and was assigned to minister there.
She said that the parish’s hospitality “made a big difference.”
“We were able to build relationships, participate in parish life, and gradually become part of the Holy Trinity family,” Cisneros added. “That first welcome was very important because it gave us a sense that we belonged there. Holy Trinity quickly became a place where we felt connected and at home.”
Just as her husband became involved in ministry at Holy Trinity through the deacon formation program, so did Cisneros, becoming the parish’s coordinator of religious education in 2022 and serving as a pastoral associate starting in December 2025. This perspective as one involved in helping to lead ministry at Holy Trinity has given her a deepened appreciation of the faith community and its history.
“I have seen so many people willing to step forward when something needs to be done,” Cisneros said. “That spirit of helping one another is one of the things that makes Holy Trinity a family to me.
“When I think about the 175th anniversary, I don’t just think about 175 years of history. I think about all the people who have made Holy Trinity what it is today, and I feel grateful that my family and I are now part of that history.”
Father Wadleton is glad to be Holy Trinity’s pastor at a time when it is celebrating such an important anniversary.
“There’s great excitement,” he said. “The parish is very different than it was 25 years ago when we celebrated the 150th anniversary. But everybody is equally excited. No one is longing nostalgically for the past. This is who are right now and we’re proud of who we are and excited to celebrate it.” †
