Parish ready to celebrate 190th anniversary

By Jean Bradley
For The Catholic Week 
MONTGOMERY — St. Peter Catholic Church in downtown Montgomery will celebrates its 190th anniversary on Sunday, April 28 at a 10:30 a.m. Mass celebrated by Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi as celebrant. Fr. Thomas LaPointe, a former Montgomery resident and current parochial vicar at St. Columba Parish in Dothan will serve as homilist.
Following Mass, clergy, parishioners and visitors will take part in a Eucharistic procession around the block beginning and ending at the church's entrance at Adams Avenue. A reception in Cusack Hall will conclude the celebration.
"This is a great opportunity for our parish as we celebrate 190 years," said St. Peter Parish Pastor Fr. Saleth Mariadoss. "We look forward to welcoming former parishioners’ home as we celebrate our Catholic faith while showcasing our rich history."
In 1833 work began to build a Catholic church on the corner of Lawrence Street and Adams Avenue in downtown Montgomery. The frame building was completed in 1834 and dedicated on April 25, 1834. As the Catholic population grew in Montgomery, this frame building proved to be inadequate, and work began on the present-day church in 1851 with completion a year later.
Catholic education in Montgomery began at St. Peter Catholic Church under the guidance of the late Fr. Dennis Savage who was instrumental in establishing both a parochial school for boys and the growth of Loretto Academy for young girls. Loretto Academy eventually morphed into the Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School system today. Fr. Savage was also responsible for establishing St. Margaret's Hospital staffed by the Sisters of Charity. This reflects the spirit of the annual Catholic Charities Appeal: "The Catholic Church is the largest nongovernmental provider of education and medical services in the world."
The church's exterior is in the Spanish Colonial Style while the interior is Romanesque Revival, the oldest such standing building in Alabama. St. Peter Catholic Church features 14 stained-glass windows arranged with the time of Moses and concluding with the writers of the gospel - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Two windows in the rear of the church honor both soldiers and sailors. The church's carillon can be heard throughout downtown while the church's majestic pipe organ enhances the prayerful Masses in the interior. 
"We celebrate our anniversary at a time when our church is completing repairs from a lightning strike that damaged our steeple and organ," Fr. Mariadoss said. "It's fitting that a celebration follows this repair and we're excited to welcome everyone to join us."
— Visit www.stpetermontgomery.com for more information.