History

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St Joseph Catholic Church,

Parish History 1932 – 2019

Saint Joseph Parish is an offspring of the Sacred Heart Parish on Comanche St. in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 1932, Rev. Father Alvarez, Pastor of Sacred Heart Church, built a wooden structure on 17th St. This chapel was erected to provide a place of worship for the people of this rapidly growing section of the city. Soon this chapel served for all liturgical services, daily masses, baptisms, marriages and other devotions.  Rev. Joseph Castillon was appointed as Priest in charge. Their residence was at 710 16th Street in Corpus Christi, TX.  

San Jose (Mexican) Mission, 17th Street,

Corpus Christi (Circa 1932)

A religious center was established in 1946 in the Casa Blanca area of Corpus Christi, the beginning of today’s Holy Family Parish.  World War II was ended and times were more suited for grand plans.  Still fresh in the memories of the people were the many soldiers who lost their lives during the war.  St. Joseph’s Church was planned as a memorial to these heroes. 

Work on St Joseph’s Church started in 1948, and was dedicated July 4, 1950 by Bishop Mariano S. Garriga, the first Texas born Bishop.

For more than a year the Church was used for all services but still under the care of the pastor of Sacred Heart Church.  On January 9, 1952, Father Elsing moved, to become the first pastor of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.  Boundaries were set and the necessary approval given.  The old chapel on 17th Street was moved to the present site of St Joseph’s Church on 19th Street and served for many religious and social gatherings as well as rooms for catechism classes.  Even the parish hall could not take all the children for religious instructions because of the large number and the great distance some had to travel.  An opportunity arose and the parish was able to purchase a Protestant Church on Balboa Street.  This was dedicated as a chapel to Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Much gratitude is due to the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, RMSS and for the Maryknoll Sisters who, at the time worked in our parish from 1950 – 1967 who directed the CCD program at the time.

The new parish of St Joseph’s did not provide for a rectory.  There was only one room attached to the Church that served, for a time being, as everything: office, living quarters, meeting room, and many other necessities.  The parish had grown and was badly in need of an assistant pastor.  For this reason, rooms were added to the parish hall which became the pastor’s living quarters, and the room off the sacristy became the quarters of the new assistant pastor, Fr Alphonse Fiato, MSF, who arrived at St Joseph’s in October 1954.

Two years later, Fr Fiato moved to Beeville, Texas and was replaced by Fr Paul Okros, MSF who served as the assistant pastor of Gregory, Texas in 1948.  In the meantime, the new rectory was designed and construction began.  The new structure was added to the back of the Church with a door leading directly into the sacristy.  The rectory is a two-story building containing a kitchen, housekeeper’s rooms, Dining Room and three offices on the first floor.  Upstairs are five bedrooms, a living room and five bathrooms.  Finally, Fr Elsing had decent living quarters.  The rectory was blessed in 1958 and now Fr Elsing had two assistants, Fr Maas, MSF and Fr Leonard Kelly, MSF.  In addition to serving at St Joseph, they also started a mission after the purchase of a protestant church on Balboa Street and became the mission church of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In the beginning of 1960, Fr Elsing was elected superior of Sacred Heart Monastery and so the first pastor of St Joseph’s was called back to Sacred Heart Church.  He exchanged positions with Fr Henry Romer, MSF, becoming the second pastor of St Josephs.

The parishioners of St Joseph’s did not cease working for their parish and priests but moved on higher and higher.  Air conditioning was installed in the Church.  The problem of insufficient room for religious instruction necessitated the building of a little school – also fully air conditioned.  Only the lack of religious teachers hindered them from opening a Catholic school.  The “school” was dedicated by Bishop Garriga in 1963.

In 1963, Fr Romer, pastor of St Joseph’s, was elected Provincial of the North American Province of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Holy Family and left in 1964 for St Louis, Missouri, to take on his duties.  Fr Francis Maas, MSF was appointed 3rd pastor of St. Joseph’s.  Soon he became seriously ill and his doctor asked to have him released from the parish obligations.

Fr Herman Berg, MSF became the 4th pastor of St Joseph’s Church in 1964 with Fr Arthur Riggs, MSF and Fr Charles Niebel, MSF as his assistants.  Fr Berg added two more classrooms to the school.  However, he was still unable to get religious teachers to staff the school.  He decided to build a convent and have at least Sisters in the parish to take care of teaching religious classes and taking care of many other social needs of the parishioners.  The convent was built in 1967.  Three Schoenstatt sisters arrived in 1967 and did faithfully serve the parish until the summer of 1974.  Fr Berg now wanted to build a new parish hall. 

Bishop Thomas Drury, however realized a more important necessity.  A new church dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe was needed to serve the needs of the faithful.  St Joseph’s parish already owned land on Hiawatha Street.  The decision to build the new church on this land was made by the Bishop.  Plans were developed by Arlin Yeager, Jr., Architect.  The plans were studied, approved and construction began.

In 1969 the church was in the final stages of completion began.  In 1969, the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe was in the final stages of completion.  Bishop Drury proposed to take this church and make it a new parish in the care of his diocesan priests.  Fr Pena was the first pastor.

Serious illness and heart trouble led the superiors to move Fr Berg.  It was decided that it would be better for his health to be relieved from the heavy duty of St Joseph’s Parish.  He was appointed pastor of St James Parish in Refugio, TX January 31, 1970.

Fr Romer had completed 6 years as Provincial and now returned on 1 February as 5th Pastor of St Joseph’s.  His dream to build a parish hall, better fitting all kinds of purposes, especially for the youth, became a reality mainly through the natural disaster of the torrential hurricane “Celia” in 1970.  Damage to the church, parish and garage, which occurred in just a few minutes, would take years to rebuild.

Problems arising from the hurricanes were many.  Insurance settlements were slow and money was scarce.  Materials for repairs were hard to obtain.  Labor was expensive and also scarce.  Finally, however, repairs began to take place and charges were made in the church in accord with the new directives of Vincentian Organization.  One of the greatest projects was the building of a new all-purpose hall.  Plans went smoothly.  The Diocesan School Board proposed the question to St Joseph’s Parish if they would consider opening a St Joseph’s Junior High School.  Without delay the parishioners voted to accept this tremendous responsibility.  One classroom was converted into a library, another into a Science Laboratory.  The Parish Conference Room was converted into a home Economics room.  St Joseph’s Junior High School provided academic and religious education for boys and girls of the 7th to 9th grade levels.  Between 1972 to 1977, 3 Sisters of Mercy served the school.

Still missing for the school was a play area for the children.  Land was offered but the parish could not afford to pay for the land until the Home and School Association, through Mr. Jesse Soto offered land was purchased in 1975.  The late Fr Romer celebrated his 70th Birthday, in April 1975 so to honor his 70th Birthday the parish purchased the first organ for the parish. 

14 January 1982, Fr Romer was transferred and St Joseph’s saw the arrival of the 6th Pastor, Fr Herman Defler, MSF.  Fr Defler served the people at St Josephs for approximately 6 years and assisting Fr Defler were a variety of priests and a brother (Br Larry Keenan, MSF) from the Missionaries of the Holy Family. 

After 7 years of service to the people of St Joseph’s, Fr Defler was reassigned and Fr James Wasser, MSF succeeded him, and August 15, 1988 saw the arrival of the 7th Pastor of St Josephs, he served St Josephs between August 15 1988 until 31 July 1990.  Fr Waaser had three MSF priests during his term at St Josephs.   Sadly, St Josephs’ School continued to nourish until a decline of number of students forced to close the school in the 1990’s.  By the end of 1990 saw the arrival of the 8th pastor of St Josephs, Fr David Tonary, MSF.  Fr David served the parish from August 15, 1990 for 12 years, and under his service as pastor, he had serving with him, 4 priests including the late Fr Joseph Lawless, MSF.  Fr Tonary also had Br Rolland Kapsner serving with him at St Josephs.   In 2002, the majority of the Missionaries of the Holy Family were reassigned, except for the late Fr Joseph Lawless who remained in the parish until he was unable in 2013.

July of 1998 saw the arrival of the Sisters of St Anne.  There were 3 sisters who moved to St Joseph, Sr. Emiliana, Sr. Lucia and Sr. Lourdes.  They came to serve in the schools of the Diocese of Corpus Christi and to be present in the parish of St Joseph. 

In 2003, saw the arrival of diocesan priests take over pastoral responsibilities of St Joseph.  The next pastor, being the 9th Pastor of St Josephs was Fr Thomas Goodwin in 2003.  Fr Tom achieved in beautifying the church, and the building of the pipe organ of the parish amongst other things.

Fr Tom (along with Fr Joe Lawless, MSF) had Fr Joseph Lopez serving with him and Deacon Reynaldo Rojas arrived as the Permanent Deacon of the Parish.  Fr Lopez was transferred and by the beginning of 2006, Fr Tung Tran was the Assistant Pastor/Parochial Vicar to Fr Tom.  Fr Tran remained at the parish and was transferred and by the beginning of 2008, Fr Henry Artunduaga arrived at the parish. 

By the beginning of 2011, Fr Tom Goodwin was reassigned and Fr Angel Montana was appointed the 10th pastor of St Josephs.  Since the establishment of St Joseph’s Parish, many ministries unfolded and from the parish reaches out to its members as well as the west side of the city of Corpus Christi. Permanent Deacon Juan Carlos “JC” Ayala was assigned at St. Joseph to serve with him. 

In 2013, Fr Angel was transferred to Sacred Heart Church, Comanche Street in Corpus Christi as Pastor. 

Bishop William Michael Mulvey, the current Bishop of the Diocese of Corpus Christi asked the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) to take over the pastoral responsibilities of St Joseph’s Parish.  The 11th Pastor, Fr Rogel “Ogie” B. Rosalinas, SOLT was the former General Priest Servant of the SOLT Community was ending his term, so the community asked him to take over pastoral responsibilities of St Josephs.  Fr Ogie was joined by the first priest of SOLT to become the Parochial Vicar at St Josephs, Fr Vincent Albano and a newly ordained transitional deacon, Dcn. Alphonsus Abainza, SOLT. 

In 2014 was a great year for the parish as they witnessed another first mass in the parish.  Dcn Al Abainza, SOLT was ordained. a priest.  Fr Albano was transferred to Rome and Fr Al Abainza was assigned as Parochial Vicar to St Josephs.  In the summer of 2014, the former school building was given back to the management of the parish.  In October 2014, a permanent brother, Br Martin McGough, SOLT was leaving his role as the Secretary to the Regional Priest Servant of the SOLT Community.   The former St. Joseph school building was used once again, there was a need to acquire extra space for Religious Education for the young people of the parish and for large events.  Funding was sought to furnish the classrooms, for repairs and to furnish a commercial kitchen.  All was done through grants.    In 2016 saw the installation of the TV Monitors and Cameras in the Church and the Church complex.  In 2017, Fr Al was reassigned and saw the arrival of Fr Terencio “Tito” Ayo, SOLT as the new assistant.  By the summer of 2018, we saw the arrival of a seminarian, Brother Timothy Burnham.  Br Tim joined the parish for one year to gain pastoral experience.   

January 2019 was a great month for the parish of St Joseph.  Fr Rogel Rosalinas, SOLT; the 11th Pastor of St Joseph celebrated his 25th year of priesthood.  Over 30 priests attended the celebratory Mass, along with 2 bishops – His Excellency Bishop William Michael Mulvey was present and Bishop Edmond Carmody concelebrated,  Fr Ogie’s family came to join in the celebration and many parishioners, members of the SOLT Community and people from the Filipino-American Community of Corpus Christi. Fr Ogie’s Anniversary of Ordination (picture)

March 4, 2019 was a sad day for St Joseph’s, as we saw the loss of one of our priests, the late Fr Terencio “Tito” Ayo, SOLT.  Fr Tito fought the battle of cancer for 10 years and he breathed his last.  The wake for Fr Tito was held on Thursday, March 14 at St Josephs and his funeral mass was celebrated by Bishop William Michael Mulvey, the Bishop of Corpus Christi on Friday, March 15, 2019 with many priests, religious and parishioners attending his funeral mass.  Many of Fr Tito’s family was present for the wake and funeral mass.

During 2019, we saw the installation of new security fencing and electronic gates.  This was to provide more security for the parishioners, staff working in the parish and volunteers.  There was a need to develop the youth of the parish and continuous provision of religious education.  Dcn Dave Brokke, SOLT following his diaconate ordination in Detroit, Michigan was assigned as a Transitional Deacon at St Josephs for one year and served as a DRE, Religious Education and Youth Minister along with Sr Caritas of the Cross Wendt, SOLT who both came to serve at St Josephs.  The pastor remains as Fr Rogel “Ogie” Rosalinas, SOLT.

In July of 2019, Deacon David Brokke, SOLT was ordained a priest and was assigned to North Dakota. Fr. Juan Antonio Villagomez Nunez, SOLT was the new Parrochial Vicar and Director of RCIA of St. Joseph. Sr. Caritas was also reassigned and replaced by Sr. Solanos Kasey as the DRE and Youth Director. Brother Martin McGough is temporarily on-sick leave.