About Our Church
The Italian and Irish immigrants who lived in Bessemer and the surrounding areas organized Saint Aloysius Catholic Church in the fall of 1886. Rev. Patrick A. O’Reilly offered the first Mass in the old Montezuma Hotel. Fr. O’Reilly later became pastor of the Cathedral of Saint Paul and also was founder of Saint Vincent’s Hospital and the East Lake Orphans Home. After fire destroyed the hotel, Associate Pastor John Daley began offering Mass twice each month in Leonard’s Grist Mill on 5th Avenue North in Bessemer. On January 25, 1888, the church was deeded land from the Bessemer Land Company along 5th Avenue North and 17th Street North. Catholic men from the local rolling mill erected a frame building on the site.
Bishop Edward P. Allen appointed Rev. Joseph A. Wright, the first resident pastor, in 1899. Fr. Wright brought the
Sisters of Mercy to staff the parish’s school in late 1900. Fr. Malachi E. Kitrick replaced the old frame school with
a modern brick building in 1912, the first of its kind in North Alabama. Fr. Michael Hourican erected a brick church beside the school in 1924. Several renovations and improvements were made to the church and school
buildings over the years.
In 1935, Joseph A. Durick, a seminarian and Saint Aloysius parishioner, was in charge of the CCD summer
religion classes. In 1955, Msgr. Durick was consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Mobile by Archbishop
Thomas J. Toolen. Bishop Durick was the first American bishop of Slovak origin, the first priest to be elevated to
the Episcopate in Cathedral of Saint Paul, and the first to be named Auxiliary for the diocese. He later became
Bishop of Nashville.
Rev. Francis T. Coyle served the longest period of time of any priest at Saint Aloysius. He was appointed pastor
in 1938, retired in 1947 due to ill health but remained at Saint Aloysius as Pastor Emeritus assisting his
successor, Rev. John H. Stack, until shortly before his death in 1971.
In 1981, the Sisters of Mercy discontinued their work to Saint Aloysius School after over 80 years of service.
Church members honored the sisters with a reception.
Rev. Desmond Regan and Associate Pastor Gerard Kitts, OSB, saw the parish grow and prosper under their
leadership in the late 1970s through the late 1980s. Bishop Raymond Boland, the second bishop of the
Birmingham diocese, appointed Rev. Louis Giardino pastor in 1988. After fire destroyed the church on
December 21, 1989, Mass was offered in the school’s gym. Many donations and fundraisers later, property was
purchased on Academy Drive, just off I-20/59, and a new church was built and completed in time for Christmas services in 1992.
In 2019 Rev. Gerald Holloway came in to serve as Pastor of Saint Aloysius Catholic Church. In addition to his duties at St. Aloysius, Father Holloway also served as the Chaplain of the University of Alabama football team, a ministry he has performed since 2003 when Mike Shula was Head Football Coach.
Currently, Fr. Reju Pynadath serves as the Parish Administrator of Saint Aloysius Catholic Church.
St. Aloysius School operated from 1912 to 2018, educating hundreds of children over the span of a century. St. Aloysius parish, which has more than 400 registered families, continues to thrive and grow, offering masses in both English and Spanish.