Parish History

The Church of the Holy Spirit was established by Bishop John L. May in 1977 with the appointment of Rev. Gordon Milsted as pastor. From the first parish Mass on June 19, 1977 until November 1980, the 87 parish families considered Montgomery Catholic High School as their church while they made plans for a permanent home. A Parish Council was formed that first summer and approximately 100 C.C.D. students began classes in October.

Father Milsted lived at St. Bede Rectory until December of 1978 when he moved into the first parish Rectory on Edinburgh Drive in Brighton Estates. A building drive had been launched in September of 1978 and 14.4 acres of prime land on Vaughn Road were purchased a year later. The Building Drive was subsequently expanded to a Stewardship Drive to incorporate a broader definition of parish support and more effective sharing of talents. Success brought ground-breaking ceremonies in March of 1980.

March of 1985 brought the dedication of the rectory on Church grounds. Our second pastor, Reverend Arthur Schrenger, lived there since his arrival the week before Christmas of 1987 until his reassignment in September of 1999. David Payne of Pearson, Humphries, Jones & Associates served as architect of the church project with the T.H. Taylor Construction Company as builder. The project was completed with seating for 300 in the church proper and with a small kitchen and large multi-purpose room. A small house purchased with the land was kept for meeting and classroom space and dedicated to Thomas Germanson, chairman of the Building Committee.

On November 16, 1980, parishioners celebrated the first Mass in the new church, even as Oscar H. Lipscomb was installed in Mobile as archbishop of the newly elevated archdiocese. Parish boundaries were drawn east of the Eastern Bypass from the Atlanta Highway to Woodley Road. As the city has grown in our direction, so also has our parish grown with the additions of many families, two trailers, a playground, a full-time Director of Religious Education and a full-time Youth Minister.

In the fall of 1991, the parish started planning for expansion.  In the fall of 1994, the "Growing In The Spirit" campaign kicked off to raise funds to build a new church.  The parish celebrated ground breaking of the new 700 seat church in the December of 1999.  Celebrations in the new church began on Easter 2001.

We currently have approximately 850 families in the parish.

Our current pastor, Rev. Monsignor Charles Troncale, came to us from St. Joseph parish in Prattville.  He also previously served as pastor of St. Bede in Montgomery.

On September 2, 1999, Rev. F. Charles Troncale was appointed pastor. The ground breaking ceremony for the new church was on December 5, 1999. The new church was dedicated by Archbishop Lipscomb on Saturday, May 12, 2001. In the meantime, on Feb. 20, 2000, the 5.3 acres that bordered on the south end of the church property was purchased from parishioner,  Helena Malus. The 1972, 1668 sq. ft. house became the pastor's residence on March 26, 2002. Fr. Gary Williams, a  former navy chaplain, had been assigned to Holy Spirit as associate pastor on January 9, 2002. On June 14, 2002 ,  Fr. Michael Labadie was assigned to Holy Spirit as associate pastor, and teacher at Montgomery Catholic High School. Over the years, priest chaplains from Maxwell Air Force Base have helped on weekends at Holy Spirit parish.

On October 6, 2002, Fr. Troncale was invested with the title "monsignor" in a ceremony  at the Cathedral in Mobile. In October, 2005 the carport of the original rectory was enclosed, and the former living quarters of the priest was given over to be used as offices for the Religious Education director and the parish bookkeeper. In 2002 the city of Montgomery informed the parish that both trailers had to be removed. One was removed in May, 2002. The other was removed in May, 2005.

The Long-Range Planning committee, and the committee members have conducted a survey of parishioners with a view toward a master plan by the end of 2006.