Thank you for visiting the St. Joseph Catholic Church website!

Here at St. Joseph Church, we promote stewardship by encouraging parishioners to acknowledge that everything we have is a gift from God.  We provide opportunities through our many ministries to express our gratitude to Him by using our marvelous gifts of time, talent and financial resources to be true disciples of Jesus Christ.  This message is conveyed in the parish Vision Statement:

To develop a parish whose culture enables each person to embrace the Biblical Mandate:  "Not  to be served but to serve"  (Mark: 10:45), to love the Lord with all his/her heart, soul and being and to love others in truth, justice, and charity.

St. Joseph is a diverse parish of Catholics who are united in their Catholic beliefs.  Our desire is that all parishioners, as members of the body of Christ, will feel personally connected to the parish, thereby growing in love of God and each other.  If you are a member of the parish but have not been attending Mass, please know that you are missed and we encourage you to join us in the celebration of the Eucharist as well as other activities.

Advocacy for People with Disabilities

The Diocese of Harrisburg is committed to working toward full participation of people with disabilities and their families in all aspects of the life of the Church.  The Diocesan Office of Ministry for People with Disabilities initiated the Parish Advocacy Program in 2007 to enable parishes to better respond to the gifts and needs of their parishioners with disabilities. 

Fran Stringer has been appointed by Monsignor Lyons to serve as our Parish Advocate.  A Parish Advocate works with the pastor and also the Office of Ministry with People with Disabilities in the diocese.   This person strives to assist parishioners with disabilities to become full participants in the life of the church – spiritually, physically and socially. 

If you or someone you know is limited in participation at St. Joseph Parish and this could be improved by special accommodations please let Fran know how we might work with you to remove roadblocks to full inclusion in our parish life.  She can be reached by calling the Parish Office at 637-5236.   Please leave your name, contact information and the most convenient time for a call back.  

St. Joseph Parish has enlisted Parish Giving to provide its members with the opportunity to use Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) as an alternative method for giving. 

Click on Parish Giving logo above to register for the program.

Parish Giving allows participants to donate a recurring contribution that is automatically transferred from your checking or savings account, or even credit card, on a monthly basis, and you select your own billing date. This Program can be utilized for your Sunday contributions, as well as any Holy Day Collection and all diocesan collections.

The use of EFT is not only time saving and convenient for you, but also allows our Parish to realize a more consistent level of support. By signing up for Parish Giving, you will know that you are doing your part to support the Parish even at times you are not able to be physically present to celebrate with the Parish Community.

Information/Registration is now available for those interested in attending the annual Corpus Christi Men's Retreat.  It will be held August 4-6, 2017, at Mt. St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, MD.  Cost is $150 double/$180 single, all-inclusive. $60 deposit is due with registration. A Pope will be in attendance...Msgr. Charles Pope, that is...he is the Retreat Master this year.  Msgr. Pope is a graduate of MSM, being ordained in 1989. Msgr. Pope is pastor to an inner-city parish (Holy Comforter/St. Cyprian) in D.C.  He also has Bible studies on Capitol Hill (Congress) and the White House.  He has a regular blog on National Catholic Register's website (please check this out...the blogs run the gamut from current issues to traditional Catholic teachings).  His theme is: 'Journey to the normal Christian Life--the Life Jesus died to give us'.

Registration forms are available through Deacon Tom.

Hershey Park tickets: the HAMMI mission group (Deacon Tom) is offering Hershey Park tickets at a reduced cost, to support the Sisters of Divine Providence.  Tickets are available through Deacon Tom at the parish office (637-5236), or at home (632-1794). Adults (ages 9-54) are $40 (regularly $64.95); Junior/ Senior (ages 3-8 and 55-69) are $34 (regularly $41.95). Tickets are good anytime during the 2017 season. Ticket sales are open to everyone.

Construction of the building addition by Conewago is complete and interior outfitting of the building with voice, data, and other advanced technology systems work is well underway.  Current activities include: smartboard installs, cat6 and Emergency Broadcast system speaker wiring, digital smartboard configuration, handcrafted shelving in grades Pre-K through 2 dues to insufficient storage space, new IT cabinets and uninterruptible power supply equipment installs, school computer configuration changes and updates, and a library redesign. The move of the Baltimore St. school to Grandview Rd. is planned for June 10^th and is on-schedule. Approximately 100 generous parishioners volunteered their time to help with this move which will entail over 1000 pieces that will be relocated to the new building.

Photos of the new addition are shown below. The full construction of the addition and outfitting will be completed in July with final system testing and training of the new technology to the staff completed in early August. Use of the facility by various groups is expected near the end of July.

The 21-week series of the New Evangelization program, ChristLife, held at St. Joseph's for the second year, recently ended. Thirty participants completed the program, which consisted of three 7-week sessions on Discovering, Following and Sharing Christ, offered between September 2016 and May 2017. Signs made by those attending the Sharing Christ Retreat on May 13, reflect what their lives or attitudes were like before and what they are like after participation in the program. The program offered all opportunities to enter a closer relationship with our Lord and to experience practical and loving ways of leading others to Christ.