There is an old saying about “all good things” and the adage certainly applies to St. Albert’s. The magnificent parish that was literally built from the ground up by its parishioners in 1955 would be closing and the first definitive news of this came way back in 2012.

On Feb 20th 2012 the news rang out that 16 Catholic parishes in the Dearborn/Dearborn Heights area would close under a plan announced by the Archdiocese of Detroit. The Archbishop Allen Vigneron told of the plans at Blessed Pope John Paul II Catholic Church. St. Albert the Great and St. John the Baptist, both in Dearborn Heights, would develop a plan to merge and the new parish would cluster with St. Sebastian, also in Dearborn Heights. He cited declining Church membership, declining number of priests, and debt as the primary reasons for these closings.

“The life of the Church here in the Archdiocese of Detroit cannot simply continue without significant changes,” Vigneron wrote in a letter to members of 267 Churches in the Detroit area. “Faith and prudence demand that we act now to ensure that we will be able to do God’s work effectively in the years to come.”