12. St Aloysius

Name: St. Aloysius
Location: Detroit - Washington and Grand River
Parish Established/Church Built: 1873/1930
Date Visited: 3/14/10 11:30AM





Just like Ss. Peter and Paul, you could pass by St. Aloysius and not know it's a church. It fits right in between two large buildings on Washington Blvd. down the street from the Book Cadillac. From the outside it looks fairly traditional, which makes the inside all the more stunning.

With not a lot of space at a church which once served all the Catholics working downtown for mass on Holy days, the solution was to build tiered seating, like a stadium or theatre. There are three levels of seats, with the first floor being the main level, but a few hundred people could sit in the basement and look up to the main altar through a hole in the floor/ceiling. I've never seen anything like it. Of course now only the main level was used.

Besides from being blown away by the architecture, this was by far the friendliest congregation until now. I was welcomed right away and people smiled so genuinely when they said "Good Morning" it was hard not feel good.

St. Aloysius is clustered with St. Patrick (right by the DSO). Their usual pastor was busy all day with St. Patrick's Day festivities at the parish and corktown, that we had a visiting priest. He was formerly from Shrine in Royal Oak. He was great, and the entire experience felt very personal and relevant. He welcomed the visitors from out of state and had some parishioners get up and tell their stories of faith. Most enjoyably, this parish sings! They even have the same book, Lead Me Guide Me we had at Christ the King.

Also, the sharing of peace, which usually lasts all of 45 seconds at most churches was more akin to Christ the King's love in/intermission I'm accustomed to. It's perfectly acceptable at CK to walk around the church to share the greeting of peace with anyone and everyone, while at most churches I see, you just stand still, and maybe shake hands or just make eye contact with those in your immediate surroundings. St. Aloysius was just like CK where people walked around, and had small conversations. I found out the woman sitting next to me was from my neighborhood, and was baptised at Christ the King.

This church rightly bills itself as multi-ethnic, multi-generational, and they should also add multi-socio economic status in there too, but I guess that would be bulky. There are all types here, all doing God's work in church and in the community at large. Across the street is the Canticle Cafe, a place where anyone can come indoors to us the internet, library, and get some food and drink at no cost.

Social hour afterwards was sponsored by St. Al's partnering parish, Our Lady of Good Counsel in Plymouth, MI. Their parishioners come every (month? two months??) to serve a hearty lunch to St. Al's. I felt more than welcome to attend, and sat down with strangers and stated talking like old friends. It was an incredible experience. Although I wondered do people think just because we live in Detroit that we're hungry?? Oh well, it was great lunch, thanks OLGC!

Well, this is all from just my perspective, but obviously I really enjoyed St. Al's. Thanks to them for making me feel welcome, I hope to return soon!

Side note: my mom says she attended St. Aloysius on weekdays when she worked for the Bell company down the street, my oldest brother was baptised there by Fr. Kolar, who is now at Most Holy Trinity. Small Archdiocese!