“Since the spiritual needs of the faithful living in the parish of Our Lord Jesus King and the Most Holy Rosary, Evansville, In., cannot be properly attended to because of the size of the respective churches and schools within each parish, I hereby divide the territories and erect herewith the new parochial Church of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the City of Evansville, IN.”
                                                              Henry J. Grimmelsman, Bishop of Evansville, April 14, 1962

April 14, 1962 Nativity erected as a Parish – First boundary was north to Washington Ave. (400 families), then the north boundary changed to Covert Ave. (250 families)
October 31, 1962 Construction began (total cost - $385,333.00) 
September 16, 1963 First day of school (260 students in 7 grades); 5 Benedictine Sisters
October  20, 1963 First Mass; first server – Mark Scheller ; first Baptism – Joseph Grotte
November 10, 1963 First Communion class – 47 children
November 28, 1963 First Marriage – Robert Weber & Tamarra Minnette
December 20, 1963 First Funeral Mass – Margaret Kalinnowski
December 29, 1963 Formal dedication: Celebrant – Bishop Grimmelsman; Arch priest – Msgr. Niehaus; Deacon – James Lex; Sub deacon – Joseph Ziliak; M.C. Rev. Robert Deig and Frater Colman Grabert; Sermon – Msgr. Thomas Clarke; Servers – Steven Lasher, John Taylor, Joseph Zimmer, Mark Scheller 
Funny Story: At the dedication, the Bishop pounded on the altar & yelled that this was an invalid Mass, because the cruets were not on the altar.
February 21 1965 First Confirmation – 83 children
June 1977 Mel Lasher became a Deacon
May 1987 Church renovated
October 1993 Debt finally paid off
October 1998 Celebrating 35th anniversary with picnic and storytelling

 

Nativity had the first Parish Council in the Diocese ( ) and one of the earliest Parish Pastoral Councils.
Nativity ( )  now has 313 families – 730 members, 252 stewards (80%) and 61 wandering sheep.

Pastoral Leadership:
Fr. Walden Schiffer, Pastor  – April 14, 1962 – 1968 (died March 1999)
Fr. Charles Pfeiffer, Associate Pastor
Sr. Marcia, Principal
Teachers: Sr. Kathleen, Sr. Norberta, Sr. Benita, Sr. Michaeleen, Ann Graham, Larry Scheller, Larry Luig;
         Fr. Steve Lintzenich helped while still in the seminary,
In between Pastors, Frs. Koch and Niehaus served as Interim Pastors.
Fr. John Foster, Pastor – October 1, 1968 – November 13, 1980
Fr. Joseph Ziliak, Pastor – December 1, 1980 – July 14, 1987
Fr. Bill Dietsch, Pastor – July 14, 1987 – December 1989
Fr. Pat Foster,  Administrator – December 1989– July 1990
Fr. James Short, Spiritual Leader – December 1989 – July 1990
Fr. Henry Kuykendall, Pastor – July 14, 1990 – present
Sr. Jane McConnell – Pastoral Associate – September 1, 1991 – October 1998
Sr. Rosanna Dorn – Pastoral Associate – March 1, 1999 – 2001
Fr. Claude Burns -


Stories To Remember: To alleviate crowding at CTK, Fr. Egloff gave the Bishop $50,000.00 to build a Southside school. The Bishop bought a piece of wet land, good for rabbit hunting. The basement was at ground level so they bought 200 loads of dirt from the Fuquay sewer project at $1.00 a load. The basement flooded several times a year until 1994.

We purchased shrubs from a nursery for $1.00 a shrub, but had to dig them up at the nursery, had to store them for the winter and replant them next in the spring.

The beautiful statue of Mary in front was bought by Fr. Schiffer, in memory of his mother. The Men’s Club remodeled the old farm house and converted into a convent for the 5 Sisters. Fr. Schiffer lived for 2 years in one room with a bath at the end of the school hall, then bought a house on Joyce Ave.  He introduced one of the first lotteries in the area. It was the key to our paying our debt and bills, after they took away 150 families. When Fr. Schiffer left he gave the lottery to the high schools. We were never able to pay our bills in spite of constant fundraising until we became a Stewardship Parish in 1993. 


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