Young people sing during St. Gabriel Parish's 100th anniversary Mass with Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron at the southwest Detroit parish on April 10.Dan Meloy | The Michigan Catholic
Detroit — On April 10, the St. Gabriel Parish community gathered to commemorate the past, celebrate the present and look to the future.
With Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron presiding, the Spanish-speaking southwest Detroit parish celebrated its 100th anniversary of hearing God’s word on West Vernor Highway.
“To us, it’s a great joy to be in the presence of the living Jesus,” said Fr. Marc Gawronski, pastor of St. Gabriel. “This parish has always been an immigrant community — with the Polish and Irish moving to Detroit 100 years ago — and it’s a community where many immigrant families come together now.”
While St. Gabriel has a proud past, Fr. Gawronski said there is much to look forward to at the parish.
“Recently, we had 150 children baptized, and we fully initiated 37 people,” Fr. Gawronski said. “We’re proud of the way people here evangelize, drawing others to life in the Church.”
Southwest Detroit — known as Mexicantown — is known for its Hispanic parishes, but St. Gabriel distinguishes itself with parishioners whose families hail from the west-central Mexican states of Jalisco and Guanajuato and the northern state of Nuevo Leon.
“This particular parish mostly comes from three states, and it’s particularly a younger community,” said parishioner Salvador Aguinaga. “The choir is all kids; we have a lot of young people in the parish. Here, the Church has a future. People go to houses that are Spanish-speaking, inviting people to Mass.”
St. Gabriel’s vibrant community draws its strength from its immigrant roots, because when many Hispanics came to southeast Michigan, the Church was the common ground around which they could build a community.
“We know this parish was started by immigrants, created to praise God after leaving their country,” said parishioner Gerardo Rodriguez. “It’s still an immigrant Church. We Hispanics, when we left our homes, families and friends behind, our faith is what we had in common. It is the first thing that links us together. The first welcome we received in the country was from Jesus Christ.”
