Forget to turn in your parish census form?
Or would you like to join the parish? You can download a form right from this page. If you are not currently a parishioner and would like to register, simply fill out the form and write "NEW PARISHIONER" at the top of the first page.

Download a census form.

Don't miss the Administrator's message on the occasion of the parish's 149th anniversary!

Christmas Masses

The regular parishioners of St. Joseph Church were delighted by the number of visitors who braved icy roads and bone-numbing cold to fill our pews and celebrate a glorious Latin Mass with us at midnight, as well as the German and English masses on Christmas Day. We hope to see you back often! Thanks and praise also go to the staff of our music program and the musicians who did so much to make Christmas a magnificent, sacred occasion at our parish.

Keep checking our music schedule for more events.

The St Joseph Purgatorial Society
offers Masses throughout the year for your deceased loved ones. Anyone wishing to participate in this work of mercy toward the Poor Souls in Purgatory should write the names of those loved ones on a piece of paper along with a $10 stipend for each Mass you wish to have said. No limit for the amount of names per Mass. Put this in an envelope in the collection basket with "Purgatorial Society" written on the front. You may also mail these intentions with stipends to the business office at 4440 Russell, Detroit, MI 48207

In the charity of your prayers, remember the sick

New stories in Patrick's History Corner.

Who brings the presents at Christmas? A cautionary tale.

News: December 26, 2004

St. Joseph Maria Liebesbund/Legion of Mary
The Legion of Mary is a ministry to aid our pastor to reach out to all peoples. The Maria Liebesbund recalls the German origin of our parish when the Liebesbund Society was established December 7, 1856 as a support group for parishioners. The Legion of Mary performs spiritual and corporal works of mercy in the parish just as the original Liebesbund did. A devotional meeting is held every Tuesday in the Social Hall at 6:30 p.m. Visitors are always welcome. Last year our Holy Father, John Paul II, declared a year of the Rosary and he encouraged all people to consider praying the Rosary on a daily basis. Father Mark has installed new pamphlet racks in the church vestibule. One of the pamphlets is A Rosary for Priests. Priests need spiritual support now more than ever and this is a good way of offering that support. Please consider taking one of these pamphlets and giving this much needed spiritual support to all of our priests especially our pastor. Also consider membership in the Legion of Mary. Examples of Apostolic works the Legion performs are visiting the sick in hospitals, infirmaries and homes; giving instructions to prospective converts and to Catholic children in public schools; distributing Catholic literature; and promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Call Terry Klink (313) 582-0823.

URGENT MESSAGE!

1. Pollsters say only 25 percent of Catholics attend Mass regularly.
2. Within 5 years every priest in the diocese will have at least 2 parishes.
3. The archdiocese is having serious financial problems.
4. Mass attendance at Saint Joseph church is less than 100 people per Sunday.

The Presbyterate of the Archdiocese requested a strategic plan during the annual Convocation in 2003 to plan ahead for solutions to the many problems confronting the Church in our Archdiocese. The response from the Cardinal is a process of planning entitled "Together in Faith". The plan is not about closing parishes or schools. Obviously, there may be some parishes and/or schools which will need to close or merge. But there could be other "solutions" which will emerge as well. The plan has three stages. The first is at the parish level and will be a program to help the parish produce a "snapshot" of itself. The resulting picture and narrative will help parishes identify their strengths and challenges. An informational meeting for the three parishes in our cluster will take place at Saint Joseph Church hall at 1:30 on Sunday, January 2, 2005. A video will be shown followed by a question and answer period. Your parish needs you now more than ever before!

News: December 19, 2004
Fourth Sunday of Advent

Thanks to all who helped!
Heartfelt thanks are due to all who helped decorate the church today for Christmas. Special gratitude is extended to Francisco and Raphael Skrobola, ages 4 and "going to be 5 and a half," for their unpacking and artistic direction of the crèche scene, and for their intensely focused work with the dust mops.

Confession, Beichte, Spowiedz...
Today, as every year, confessions were heard in multiple languages in our cluster. Fr. John Kiselica was the confessor here at St. Joseph for those speaking English and German. Fr. Lawrence Fares was at Sweetest Heart of Mary for nearly "any" language. Fr. Mark Borkowski was available at St. Josaphat to hear confessions in English and Polish.

Bring a friend! Tell even more friends!
Christmas at St. Joseph's will be a magnificent event this year, as always. Visitors are warmly welcome, and parishioners are encouraged to invite them over by the carload. Look at the Christmas page for a detailed description of the Masses and music planned.

News: December 12, 2004
Third Sunday of Advent

HELP IS NEEDED!
We will decorate the church for Christmas after the 12:00 Mass next Sunday, December 19th. This will also be Donut & Coffee Sunday so volunteers can attend either the 10:30 or the 12:00 noon Mass and stop at the hall for refreshments before the work project begins.

A TOAST TO ALL
The St. Joseph Musical Society would like to thank all those people who contributed to the success of the Wine Tasting on November 20, 2004 either by attending, making a donation or volunteering. An outstanding selection of wines and a delicious array of appetizers were enjoyed by more than 60 people who attended the tasting. The members of the St. Joseph Cappella and the Schola Sancti Josephi provided a musical interlude that culminated with everyone joining them in song.
Although many people worked hard to make the event a success, special thanks go to Todd Bertani of the Wine Castle in Livonia, Leslie Karr and Sharon Sorrano who provided the appetizers as well as Jack Day, Sean Dey, Justin Karr, Matthew McGuire, and others.

Ushers needed
Calling men and women of all ages to join the ushering teams at St. Joseph Church. Please see an usher at any of the Masses to volunteer your services on a regular basis. Long-time parishioners will remember that the job of ushering was not exclusively male at our church. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, a woman regularly ushered on Wednesdays, Saint Joseph Novena Day.

Feast Day
Today is the traditional feast of Our Lady of Guadeloupe Her picture hangs in the rear of the church at the shrine of Jesus Crucified. The following is an excerpt from a prayer written by Pope John Paul II for his visit to our Lady's shrine in Mexico City (1979):

O Immaculate Virgin, Mother of the true God and Mother of the Church, hear the prayer that we address to you and present it to your Son, Jesus. Grant peace, justice and prosperity to our peoples. We wish to be entirely yours and to walk with you along the way of complete faithfulness to Jesus Christ in His Church. Virgin of Guadeloupe, Mother of the Americas, grant to our homes the grace of loving and respecting life in its beginnings. Look upon us with compassion: teach us to go continually to Jesus through a great love for all the holy Sacraments. Thus with our hearts free from evil and hatred, we will be able to bring to all true joy and true peace, which comes to us from your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

News: December 5, 2004
Second Sunday of Advent

In lieu of news today, a little history
Father Gabriel Richard was pastor of Saint Anne de Detroit Church from 1798-1832. It was the only Catholic church in Detroit from 1701-1832. Father Richard is immortalized in stone in a statue at the foot of the Belle Isle Bridge within a park named in his honor. In the 1930s, '40s and '50s the city often honored Father Richard with an all-day celebration on his birthday. He is credited with establishing the first school in Detroit, he brought the first printing press west of the Alleghenies to Detroit, published Detroit's first newspaper and co-founded the University of Michigan. When he arrived here at age 31, there were 1,200 inhabitants in the city. He published many books on his printing press, most of which were used in the school that he established. His personal library consisted of 240 books which the Archdiocese donated to the University of Michigan in 1951. His interests in books were varied, theological and philosophical works; classics in Greek, Latin, French and English; biographies of Bonaparte, Washington and Franklin; works on natural science, astronomy, agriculture, surveying, navigation, physics, chemistry, mathematics, mechanics, anatomy, surgery and methods of teaching the deaf and dumb. He took a great interest in trying to help the handicapped. Before the Protestants had a minister, he was their spiritual leader at their own request. He was the only Catholic priest elected to congress in that era. He had the first organ brought piecemeal from the east to Detroit by horseback 800 miles through the wilderness. He died in 1832 while caring for the sick during a cholera outbreak. At his funeral, more than the population of Detroit attended. He is buried in Saint Anne Church. (Kay Houston)

Correction
This week's bulletin had a short article asserting that the pipes in the organ at St. Joseph's are those of the organ originally brought to Detroit by Fr. Gabriel Richard. Further investigation of this reveals that it is no more than a persistent folktale in the parish. The best authority on our organ is one of our previous music directors, who literally took the organ apart and rebuilt it in the 1970s. Having examined every piece of the instrument, here is what he has to say about it:

"That story about our organ having pipes from the Gabriel Richard organ is complete fiction.  The story has been around longer than I have, but there's no documentation, and when the organ was dismantled in 1971-1972 there was no sign of anything of the kind.
 
"There is the possibility that the Richard organ was at St. Joe's (in the first church), but by the time the present church was built, there was an organ that must have been substantial, as it was sold for $1,000 in 1874.  That's way too much for a seventy-year-old instrument that couldn't have been more than a house organ, given Richard's means and the problem of getting it here from the Baltimore/Washington area.
 
"So IF the Richard organ came to St. Joe's, it was sold or given away some time before the present church was built.  And the 1873 organ was built in New York and all its pipes came here with it.  Having dismantled the old organ and built the new one, I can guarantee that there's nothing in it dating before 1873."

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