St. Mary’s Welcomes a New Associate Pastor

After many years of only one priest (and many months with no priest), St. Mary Parish in Crown Point got an exciting breathe of air on July 1, 2025.

Fr. Declan McNicholas started his tenure as that parish’s new Associate Pastor.

Fr. Declan was raised in Chesterton, IN. He attended Marion University graduating in 2015. He did his seminary education at University of Saint Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, IL.

After being ordained in 2019, Fr. Declan was assigned to St. Thomas More in Munster, IN as Associate Pastor. He held that role until 2021 when he was to take the Associate Pastor position at St. John the Evangelist Church in St. John, IN. It was there that he made his mark.

Bishop Robert McClory appointed him as the Director of Missionary Discipleship and Evangelization of the Diocese of Gary in 2023.

“The bishop and I are both adamant that we need to support our parishes in missionary discipleship, and that is what we are all about,” Father McNicholas noted.

“Each team member is visiting at least two parishes in the diocese each month, looking at ‘What (from this parish) can I share with others? How can I connect with the leaders? What is going well here? What are the roadblocks and what is challenging to this parish?’”

In June of 2025, Fr. McNicholas was again assigned to different parish, St. Mary’s in Crown Point while still holding his position as Director of Missionary Discipleship and Evangelization of the Diocese.

In his farewell post to the St. John the Evangelist parish, Fr. Declan posted, “To the people of St. Mary’s, I’m truly excited to join you and begin this next chapter.”

He will serve under Pastor Fr. Peter Muha. In the July 6, 2025 bulletin, Fr. Muha told the news to the parish in his weekly letter:

“We are celebrating another arrival, that of Fr. Declan McNicholas, who will serve as part-time parochial vicar (associate pastor) here at St. Mary’s.”

“He is a busy man, and I am very grateful that he will be sharing his time and talents with us. Fr. Declan is a wonderful homilist and has a lot of youthful energy (he is half my age). I am so happy to welcome him to St. Mary’s Parish.“