St. Aloysius Church, Romulus

The cornerstone of the current church was laid in 1948 and stands near the I-275/I-94 interchange.

Fr. John Dumas has been administrator since 2016. He was ordained in 2010 and previously ministered at Divine Grace in Carleton and St. Isidore in Macomb.

St. John the Apostle and Blessed Virgin Mary are depicted in stained-glass, on each side of the crucifix.

At the back of the church: St. Joseph with Child Jesus; St. Vincent de Paul with impoverished children.

Traditional side altars to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, respectively.

Stained-glass windows feature symbols of the sacraments and Scripture.

Ornate Stations of the Cross line both sides of the nave.

A niche devoted to different titles of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Daily Mass is at 7:00pm on Tuesdays, preceded by Confessions at 5:30pm. Daily Masses are also at 9:00am Wednesday-Saturday. Saturday Vigil Mass is at 5:00pm, preceded by Confessions at 3:30pm, while Sunday Masses are at 9:00am and 11:00am.

For more info: parish website

Upcoming Church Tour: June 10th

Hey readers, I saw that some people found the site looking for Church tours, so I thought I should give a heads up regarding an upcoming tour.

Next weekend is the Call to Holiness conference. An optional part of the conference is a church tour on Friday June 10th. I am not sure if there are any spots available at this time, but give them a call and find out.

Call to Holiness Church Tour

All five churches have been featured here so you can get a preview on this very blog. Click on the appropriate "tag" below to see posts about the churches: St. Aloysius, Old St. Mary, Sweetest Heart of Mary, Holy Family, and Ste. Anne.

More St. Aloysius Photos

I have added more Photos from St. Aloysius to the gallery after a visit on Tuesday.

Start browsing here.

And here are a couple.

Crypt Level Altar and Reredos:


Above door detail. Left hand entrance. "Thou wert slain and redeemed us to God with in thy blood."


Other St. Aloysius posts can be views here. The most informative would be this one.

Detroit's Blessed Sacramental Cathedral shown to National Audience

There has been a lot of buzz about the Chrysler 200 commercial from Super Bowl XLV, at least on Facebook. For about a second in the video there is a shot of Blessed Sacrament Cathedral as seen from John R. So approximately 110 million people either saw it or were grabbing dip at this time.
There were a few discussions online about which church it was, and thanks to a priest's comment we were able to ascertain that it was indeed the Cathedral



0:48 is where it is.



We get close to St. Aloysius, but we don't get to see it. There is a chance that St. Al's may be in an upcoming motion picture...

Virtual Tour from the Detroit News

I came across this virtual tour from this past summer on detnews.com. John T. Greilick and Michael Hodges take us to 12 churches around the city, 6 of them are Catholic and have been featured on this here blog previously

This Screen capture shows the format. The video itself is a narrated slide show with interesting information on the history, architecture, and art.


Featured Churches (with links to my posts when applicable):

• New Light Baptist
• Ebeneezer African Methodist Episcopal
• Pilgrim Church
• Messiah Church
• Christ Church of Detroit
• SS Peter and Paul Jesuit
• St. Aloysius
• Ste. Anne
• St. Albertus
• St. Josaphat
• Sweetest Heart of Mary
• First Congregational

Check it out if you so desire!

St. Aloysius feature in Tridentine Community News

I wanted to bring to your attention, dear reader, an article in the Tridentine Community News about St. Aloysius which I featured recently.

It discusses the Theater-like architecture of the edifice and has a couple nice pictures.

More issues of this weekly page can be viewed here.

St. Aloysius and State Deli

St. Aloysius (named for the Jesuit Aloysius Gonzaga) is a bit of an oasis in downtown Detroit nestled among the skyscrapers of Washington Street. St. Aloysius was founded in 1873 when Bishop Borgess purchased "Westminster Presbyterian Church" which was constructed in 1860. In 1877 St. Aloysius supplanted SS. Peter and Paul as the Cathedral for the diocese of Detroit. This was likely an easy transition for Bishop Borgess who lived across the street. The site of Bishop Borgess's home is "now occupied by the Book building." (Make Straight the Path, 72)

In March of 1916, the Church started a noon daily Mass to accommodate the workers of this business district, and this Mass continues to this day. It was on Tuesday of Thanksgiving week that I met a friend who works nearby for Mass and a meal.


This picture hardly does St. Aloysius justice. St. Al's has 3 levels, the loft you can see and the main floor, but behind the daily mass altar there is a semicircular hole looking down to the crypt level of the church. Above the high altar is a large mosaic of Christ the Good Shepherd.


The church as it stands today was constructed in 1930 by the Donaldson and Meier Firm who did the Chancery building to the left 4 years previous as well as Sacred Heart Major Seminary.

The parish has been under the care of the Franciscans since 1992.

After 12:15 Mass you can head next door to the State Deli and Grocery for a Deli Sandwich or even a burger and fries. If it's nice out Washington Street is a really nice area to sit outside and eat. You could also head down to Michigan and Lafayette and go to American or Lafayette Coney Island, but I didn't want to ignite any debate by choosing sides, so I've left that choice up to you, dear reader.

The book I referenced heavily for this post is Make Straight the Path: A 300-year Pilgrimage, Archdiocese of Detroit. This 12"x12" coffee table book is filled with the stories of the Churches of the Archdiocese and contains many beautiful pictures. The link above is to Amazon, and is the one the AOD provides, but you can probably find it in area Catholic Bookstores. There is a book store next to St. Aloysius in the former Chancery building. How convenient!