One of the most meaningful things happening at Cristo Rey Birmingham School right now isn’t in a classroom or a lab. It’s a chapel.
The Holy Family Chapel will be the first permanent sacred space inside the walls of the school in its more than 80-year history.
In Ensley, students worshipped at Holy Family Catholic Church next door. Now, for the first time, that space will be part of the school itself, a permanent, central place for prayer, reflection, and small group worship, ensuring that the name and mission of Holy Family remain at the heart of everything they do.
Continuing the Holy Family Mission
Priests from Holy Family Catholic Church, Fr. Phil Paxton, CP, and Fr. Hugo Esparza, CP, are at Cristo Rey Birmingham every week to meet and pray with students, engage with religion classes, and remain actively involved in the daily life of the school. Their presence is a living continuation of the Passionist mission that has been part of this community since the 1940s.
Honoring a Sacred Legacy
The chapel will also honor a broader legacy. Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church in the Collegeville neighborhood of Birmingham served Birmingham’s Black Catholic community from 1957 until its closure last year.
When Sacred Heart closed, its community made a remarkable act of generosity: they donated chairs, Stations of the Cross, baptismal fonts, a sanctuary lamp, robes, a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary that was deeply dear to them, and other sacred items to Cristo Rey Birmingham for the new chapel. These gifts carry the prayers and memories of generations of Black Catholics in Birmingham. Cristo Rey Birmingham is honored to be their stewards.
The school is also planning to commission and install a piece of original art in the chapel at a later date, a work that will incorporate people and elements from Holy Family’s religious and community history, ensuring that the faces and stories of this community are woven permanently into this sacred space.
Progress is underway. New windows have recently been installed, and new flooring is coming in the weeks ahead.
The Holy Family legacy is not behind us. It is being built into these walls.
