Schöne Kirche, schöner Kreuzweg, schöne Bilder!

Erbaut für die Liturgie der Kirche aller Zeiten!

St. Joseph Parish has continued traditional worship throughout its history, maintaining the Latin language, alongside vernacular German and English, in its Novus Ordo Masses after the Second Vatican Council. Many Masses are celebrated ad orientem, but a free-standing altar is available for priests who prefer it. In Fall 2007, after a 37 year absence, the parish reinstated the Latin Tridentine Mass which was widely replaced when the Catholic Church created the Novus Ordo Mass in 1969. St. Joseph joins the nearby parishes of St. Josaphat and Assumption Grotto as one of the few midwestern parishes offering the old Mass. St. Joseph offers it occasionally on some feast days, such as Christmas and St. Joseph's day. As a historically German parish, St. Joseph also offers German language Masses occasionally.
The parish is known for its musical heritage, offering orchestral Masses composed by the likes of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and lesser known composers on certain Sundays and Holy Days, and maintaining traditional choir and organ music.[citation needed] The St. Joseph tracker organ is a powerful instrument in a fine acoustical space. Originally built by J. H. & C. S. Odell for the present Church structure in 1873, the organ was greatly altered about 1910 and again in the early 1940s. Having declined into unplayability, it was replaced for the celebration of the church building's centennial in 1973 by the organ builder William M. Worden, using many of the Odell pipes. It currently contains twenty-nine stops. For greater general participation during the Latin Mass, St. Joseph Parish is one of the very few parishes probably in the entire United States to have available for use, even by the entire congregation, the Gregorian Missal published by the monks of Solesmes. The traditional Adoremus Hymnal published by Ignatius Press is also used at both the Latin and English Masses. Contemporary worship hymns are not used by the St. Joseph Music Ministry.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph_Roma…

Mass mob fills pews at Detroit's historic St. Joseph Catholic Church
St. Joseph Church was founded by German immigrants in 1855, and the current church was built circa 1873. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is designated as being a structure of special significance because of the artistry of its stained-glass windows and other Features.
Parishioners at St. Joseph Catholic Church found themselves competing for seats — and parking spots — Sunday as a mob of visitors descended upon the historic church near Eastern Market.
About 100 people are typically scattered throughout the pews for the Sunday morning mass.
This morning, they spilled from the pews into the aisles, and through the doors from there. Fans rotated furiously to help combat the heavy humidity in the historic building at 1828 Jay St.
“It’s just fantastic,” said parishioner Christine Hubbard, who helped coordinate the event. “Father (Greg Tokarski, the church’s pastor) just loved it.”
The flood of new bodies was part of the Detroit Mass Mob movement, which began on social media as a local take on a similar volunteer effort in Buffalo, N.Y. Thom Mann, an organizer of the movement, said the purpose is to highlight the city’s historic churches.
“The goal is to bring people back into these churches,” said Mann of Troy. “A lot of these people, their grandparents were baptized here. Some of them were married here and haven’t been back since.”
The mass mobs come at a time when many metro Detroit churches are struggling financially and closing their doors.
Today, St. Hilary in Redford Township and St. Dunstan in Garden City were holding their last services. Earlier this year, Our Lady Queen of Peace in Harper Woods, St. Henry in Lincoln Park and St. Clare in Farmington Hills also closed.
The closings, along with the mass mobs, underscore the Archdiocese of Detroit’s shrinking footprint in southeastern Michigan.
The Catholic Church in the U.S., along with many mainstream Christian congregations, has seen significant drops in membership in the last several decades. Some of that is due to demographic changes. But it also reflects profound disagreements between those who uphold traditional teachings and those who want the church to change positions on divorce, women or married priests, artificial birth control and gay marriage.
In the late 1980s, the Archdiocese of Detroit had more than 340 parishes spread across Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Lapeer, Monroe and St. Clair counties. Now there are about 235 parishes, although now an individual parish might include two or three church sites.
This morning, members of the Knights of Columbus and Wayne County Sheriff’s Office deputies helped with the heavy traffic at St. Joseph. Parishioners were on hand preparing sandwiches, wine and water for post-mass snacks and to shepherd people on a tour of the parish’s facilities.
It was the third time “mobsters” appeared at a mass for a Detroit church in recent months. And the one-time visit has helped some. Mann said his church, St. Charles Borromeo Parish at 1491 Baldwin in Detroit, has seen a steady uptick in worshippers since its turn with the mass mob in May — from about 100 during mass before the mob to about 120 now.
“Do I wish we had 400? Yes,” he said today. But it’s not going to happen overnight.”
Dale Price stood outside St. Joseph church this morning with two of his six children. He and his wife, Heather, brought their family from Eastpointe to attend mass, as well as make a donation for use in the church’s pantry.
“It’s an opportunity we don’t usually have — to see some of the historic churches in the city,” said Price, 45, a staff attorney with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Jeff Abraham brought his family, which includes his wife, their three children and his mother-in-law, from Grand Blanc for the service. The church was where his high school baccalaureate mass took place.
“It’s definitely something good to do on a Sunday,” he said.

www.freep.com/…/Mass-mob-St-Jos…