Saint Joseph the Worker Catholic Church is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

parish located in

Dubuque, Iowa Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Il ...

. It is part of the

Archdiocese of Dubuque The Archdiocese of Dubuque ( la, Archidiœcesis Dubuquensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the northeastern quarter of the state of Iowa in the United States. It includes all the Iowa counti ...

. The parish became the tenth Catholic parish in Dubuque when it was created in 1949 by Archbishop Rohlman. The current pastor of the parish is Father Jim Goerend. Prior to the construction of the first church, the parish offices were located at Mercy Hospital. Weekend masses were held at Washington Junior High School. Eventually a parish church was built at the current location at 90 S. Algona, Dubuque. In the late 1960s, a new parish church was built. This new church building was a departure from the traditional church buildings of the past. The church was a circular structure where the congregation sat in a semicircle around the altar. The church is noted for its stained glass windows. Originally, the parish was named Saint Joseph's Church. There was another Saint Joseph's parish about three miles away, in

Key West, Iowa Key West is an unincorporated community in Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, near the extreme southern end of the city of Dubuque. Parts of the community are now within the city of Dubuque, while others are unincorporated. Owing to the presen ...

. At times, one of the two parishes would receive mail intended for the other parish. In order to distinguish between the two parishes, the name was changed to St. Joseph the Worker parish in the 1990s. The parish is one of the larger parishes in Dubuque, mainly because of its location near the west end of the city. The church was vandalized and damaged by arson in 2003. Anti-religious graffiti was found on the walls, as was a number of beer cans. A fire was found to have been burning on the main altar. The church sustained about $100,000 worth of damage. The next day, the pastor removed the Eucharist from the building. The building was then cleaned and repaired by a company that specialized in repairing and cleaning fire damaged buildings. A nearby Methodist church that had moved to a new facility donated their old church building while cleaning and repairs were being done. A young man whose family belonged to the parish had eventually confessed to the crime, he had committed it after a night of drinking and

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use.

External links

St. Joseph the Worker Church Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Joseph the Worker in Dubuque, Saint Roman Catholic churches in Dubuque, Iowa Christian organizations established in 1949 Modernist architecture in Iowa Religious buildings and structures in the United States destroyed by arson 1949 establishments in Iowa Crimes in Iowa Church fires in the United States