WASHINGTON & WASHINGTON dc

Born in Washington DC on September 18, 1930, Aloysius entered St. Charles Seminary in Maryland in 1944. He got his MA from Maryknoll College and then went to The Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. He was ordained a diocesan priest in 1957 at St. Martin's Church in Washington, DC.

He died March 16, 1992 in Mexico from ALS (Lou Gherig's Disease). His Cause for Canonization was opened by the Diocese of Manila, Philippines on December 10, 2003. He was named Venerable on January 22, 2015.

Fr. Al worked tirelessly in South Korea after the war. He served the poor founding orphanages, hospitals and schools. In 1964 he founded the Sisters of Mary. After his diagnosis of ALS, he went to Mexico and built a Girlstown in Chalco. After his death, the Sisters founded Boystowns and Girlstowns in Central and South America and Tanzania.

Read more about his life and cause for canonization here.

Paralyzed at the age of 14, Mary Virginia Merrick's cause for canonization was opened by the Archdiocese of Washington DC in 2003. She died in the year 1955 at the age of 88. Mary Virginia started the Christ Child Society. Read more about her life and cause here.