It might be a few years away from completion, but the unveiling of the new St. Mary’s Parish brought hundreds of people out of their homes and into church Saturday afternoon.

In front of a packed St. Mary’s school gymnasium, Pastoral Council President Chris Tebbe and Msgr. Harold Knueven welcomed the group to the unveiling.

“There has been a lot of thought and time that went into what we’ll be able to see today,” Tebbe told the crowd.

The new parish will be located along the east side of U.S. 421 in what is currently a field.

The project really got going in July of 2004, when John Wahl, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, recommended a structural engineering study. Following submittal of the report, a few meetings and a feasibility study, an engineering firm called Entheos Architects, who specialize in religious construction, presented the study to the parish.

The Parish Council sought a master plan from Entheos in January of 2006, and later in June the leadership decided that the St. Mary’s site did not meet current or future needs.

Msgr. Joseph Schaedel, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, was the unveiling’s guest of honor and was invited to offer his thoughts and reflections on the project.

A church is not just a building where people come to worship, Schaedel said.

“The church is people. The church is found wherever people of God gather,” he said.

The St. Mary’s school and church have continued to grow in Decatur County, something Schaedel said he was pleased to see.

“What do the Catholics here really need?” Schaedel asked rhetorically. “We’re all in this together.”

The unveiling, he noted, was a big step in anticipation of the growing needs of the parish. The school has a great reputation, but “tired buildings,” Schaedel said.

Half of the money for the project has already been raised, and Schaedel attributed some of the credit to the St. Mary’s youth, who themselves had raised about $12,000. He also thanked and affirmed the leadership of Msgr. Knueven.

“You wouldn’t have gotten off the dime if it weren’t for Msgr. Knueven,” he said.

He added that it had to be divine providence that Knueven was assigned to St. Mary’s in Greensburg.