Mass offered in more than a dozen languages in Metro Detroit


Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Parish in Warren is one of several dozen Catholic churches in Metro Detroit - both Eastern and Roman rite - that serve large immigrant populations. Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Parish in Warren is one of several dozen Catholic churches in Metro Detroit - both Eastern and Roman rite - that serve large immigrant populations.


Detroit — It’s national Immigration Heritage Month, and you’d scarcely find a more immigrant-friendly area to be a Catholic than in Metro Detroit.

The Archdiocese of Detroit, the ninth-largest archdiocese in the United States, is home to a wide diversity of immigrant populations. While the 2010 Census counted nearly 170,000 Hispanics in the six-county archdiocese — 70 percent of whom identify as Catholic — the Spanish-speaking community isn’t the only one.

In fact, not counting Latin, English and American Sign Language, Masses are celebrated in at least 10 different languages on a regular basis at archdiocesan parishes.

• Twenty-five churches in the archdiocese offer at least one Spanish-language Mass on a regular basis. Holy Redeemer Parish on Detroit’s southwest side is home to the largest Hispanic population in the archdiocese, but churches such as All Saints, St. Gabriel, and Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Detroit, and St. Damien of Molokai in Pontiac also are home to many Spanish-speaking Catholics.

• Nine churches offer Mass in Polish. Larger concentrations of Poles reside in Hamtramck (St. Florian, St. John Paul II, Our Lady Queen of Apostles), Orchard Lake (Our Lady of Refuge, Shrine Chapel of Our Lady of Orchard Lake) and Downriver (Our Lady of the Scapular, Wyandotte). Our Lady of Czesotchowa Parish in Sterling Heights offers the most weekly Polish-language Masses, with six weekend liturgies and at least one Polish Mass every day of the week.

• Two parishes, Our Lady of Albanians in Southfield and St. Paul Albanian in Rochester Hills, offer Mass in the Albanian language and are home to large numbers of Albanian parishioners.

• Two parishes offer Mass in Italian. Holy Family Parish, off I-375 in downtown Detroit, offers an 11:30 a.m. Sunday Mass, and San Francesco Parish in Clinton Township offers a 10 a.m. Sunday Mass.

• Vietnamese Masses are celebrated at Our Lady of Grace Parish in Warren, which serves the largest segment of Vietnamese Catholics. In addition, St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in Madison Heights also offers a Vietnamese Mass.

• One parish is home to a large numbers of Lithuanian parishioners: Divine Providence (Lithuanian) in Southfield offers Masses in that language. The parish also includes many parishioners of the former St. Anthony (Lithuanian) Church in Detroit, which merged with Divine Providence in 2013.

• SS. Cyril & Methodius, a large parish in Sterling Heights (formerly located in Detroit), serves the largest segment of Slovak immigrants in the Metro area, offering an 11:30 a.m. Sunday Mass in Slovak.

• St. Andrew Kim Parish in Northville offers weekend and weekday Masses to serve the Korean Catholic population. Because of its growing Korean membership, it became a standalone parish in 2012.

• St. Lucy Parish in Sterling Heights serves the Croatian-American Catholic population, offering an 11 a.m. Sunday Mass in Croatian.

• Detroit is home to one Hungarian parish: Holy Cross on the west side offers an 11 a.m. Mass in Hungarian.

In addition to Latin-rite parishes of the Archdiocese of Detroit, southeast Michigan is also home to several Eastern-rite Catholic parishes in communion with Rome that celebrate the liturgy in various languages. Those include Chaldean (Aramaic and Arabic languages), Romanian, Ukrainian, Slavic-language Byzantine churches, Armenian, Melkite-Greek, Maronite, Syriac, Syro-Malankara and Syro-Malabar (Malayalam language) and others.
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