Detroit – When someone makes plans to help at a Catholic soup kitchen downtown, there’s a strong chance their involvement is with St. Al’s Center, which has been the central point of the outreach ministries of St. Aloysius Parish on Washington Boulevard.

This fall, though, things will be looking different for the parish’s outreach.

While the outreach and its warming center has been “headquartered” in a building owned by the archdiocese directly across the street from the church, that building will be shuttered this fall, and the ministries of St. Aloysius will find new homes. While longtime funding for St. Aloysius has remained fairly stable, the cost up maintaining and repairing the building became impractical – a situation disclosed a few years back by the archdiocese.

“Though our parish and the archdiocese attempted to find a new building to house the warming center, those attempts have not been successful,” said Fr. Tod Laverty, OFM, pastor of St. Aloysius in an Aug. 24 letter to parishioners and supporters of St. Al’s Center. “Such a scenario may be possible for the future.”

Meanwhile, those in charge of the parish and its outreach are by no means seeing the loss of the building as an impediment to their mission. Instead, they’re seeing it as an opportunity to adjust to the community’s needs.

“Our goal in our upcoming transition is to retain and enhance every element of the parish’s life and ministry,” said Fr. Laverty, “everything from divine worship, to religious education, to our ministry among seniors, to food and clothing distribution, to the parish nursing ministry, to fundraising, to evangelization.

“Though we will lack a building to host a warming center, we don’t see this as something that has to be a loss. We see it as an opportunity, guided by the Holy Spirit, to do something creative and of value for the people who need it most.”

The new face of St. Aloysius’s outreach may well become its volunteers riding bikes with food carts to those out on the streets — a practice known as their ad gentes (“going out”) ministry.

The parish will continue to use volunteers to prepare the food at a nearby location in Harmonie Park, and to train more volunteers to man the bikes. Those who visit the needy on the streets also will refer those they meet to the parish nursing ministry and clothing pantry, which will be moved into offices in the archdiocese chancery immediately next to St. Aloysius Parish.

Such a ministry, Fr. Laverty says, intentionally recalls the founder of the Franciscan Order, which oversees the parish. St. Francis of Assisi was known for his love for the poor and his being united with them in their poverty.

Other aspects of the parish’s ministry also will continue — such as its sales of coffee and candles to raise funds, its meal delivery to senior citizens housed nearby, and all liturgical aspects of the parish.

Though changing hasn’t been easy — and in fact has taken years of planning and dialoguing with the parish community — Fr. Laverty says the parish is grateful for the support St. Aloysius continues to receive from its volunteers, donors, the archdiocese and his religious order.

“We are grateful and we have many reasons to be,” he said. “Throughout this process, we have encountered a tremendous deal of generosity, cooperation and goodwill. It is heartening to see the support we have gotten from the Franciscan Order, from donors, from volunteers and front the archbishop and his staff.

“These are hard times, and they affect everyone. And although keeping and repairing the St. Al’s Community Center building is beyond our means as a community, it is not the result of anyone or any party diminishing their support. On the contrary, the outpouring of assistance we have received serves as encouragement for our parish and its outreach.”

Full details of the changes to St. Aloysius can be found online at www.stalsdetroit.com.