Welcome to St. Joseph's Church

Dear Parishioners,

From Pope Leo’s General Audience Address on May 13, 2026

“The Second Vatican Council chose to dedicate the last chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church to the Virgin Mary (cf. Lumen Gentium, 52-69). She “is hailed as a pre-eminent and singular member of the Church, and as its type and excellent example in faith and charity” (53). These words invite us to understand how in Mary, who under the action of the Holy Spirit welcomed and brought forth the Son of God made flesh, we can recognize both the model and the pre-eminent member and mother of the entire ecclesial community.

By allowing Herself to be shaped by the work of Grace, which came to fulfilment in Her, and by welcoming the gift of the Most High with Her faith and Her virginal love, Mary is the perfect model of what the whole Church is called to be: a creature of the Word of the Lord and mother of the children of God, begotten in docility to the action of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, as She is the believer par excellence, in whom we are offered the perfect form of unconditional openness to the divine mystery within the communion of God’s holy people, Mary is an excellent member of the ecclesial community. Finally, inasmuch as She brings forth children in the Son, loved in the eternal Beloved who came among us, Mary is the mother of the whole Church, which can turn to her with filial confidence, in the certainty of being heard, protected and loved.”

God Bless you!

Fr. Gerald E. Murray, Pastor