Young parish celebrates 'historic day' with groundbreaking

By ROB HERBST
The Catholic Week
SPANISH FORT — Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos Parish in Spanish Fort will soon have its own home.
Since being established in 2018, Mass has been celebrated at Prodisee Pantry. However officials broke ground Jan. 10 on a 15,000-square feet multipurpose hall, a few miles west of Prodisee Pantry at Stroh Road and U.S. Highway 31.
The hall will seat about 500 for Mass and 350 for dining, plus include a kitchen, lobby and restrooms. An administrative suite will include four offices and two meeting rooms. The total cost of the project is $5.6 million. 
Work is expected to be done sometime in 2022.
The hall is considered phase one of the parish’s building plans. A permanent church building is in phase two.
Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos Parish is the first parish established from the ground-up in the Archdiocese of Mobile in more than 40 years. It has also seen rapid growth. About 300 families are registered with the parish.
“What a happy, joyous day that we have here today. It’s an historic day,” Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi remarked at the groundbreaking. “This parish was the first parish since 1977 that started from scratch. Most parishes were a mission church of another parish. There was already a congregation. But this parish started from nothing.”
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