The Church of St. Joseph is a former

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York The Archdiocese of New York () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the State of New York. It encompasses the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island in New York City and the count ...

, located at 5 Monroe Street in the neighborhoods of

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

and Two Bridges in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. It is now administered by the Parish of Transfiguration and of St. James/St. Joseph. The Parish of St. Joseph had merged with the former neighboring Parish of St. Joachim in 1957. In 2007, it was merged again with the nearby Parish of St. James. Finally, in 2015, the parish was merged with the

Church of the Transfiguration The Church of the Transfiguration (, ) is a Franciscan church located on Mount Tabor in Israel. It is traditionally believed to be the site where the Transfiguration of Jesus took place, an event in the Gospels in which Jesus is transfigured upo ...

Parish history

The parish was opened about 1923 by the

Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo The Congregation of the Missionaries of Saint Charles Borromeo (), commonly called the Scalabrinian Missionaries, is a Catholic religious institute of brothers and priests founded by Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza in Italy, in ...

, a

religious congregation A religious congregation is a type of Religious institute (Catholic), religious institute in the Catholic Church. They are legally distinguished from Religious order (Catholic), religious orders – the other major type of religious institute – i ...

founded in 1887 by the Blessed John Baptist Scalabrini, a

Catholic bishop In the Catholic Church, a bishop is an Holy orders in the Catholic Church, ordained Minister (Catholic Church), minister who holds the fullness of the Sacraments of the Catholic Church, sacrament of holy orders and is responsible for teachin ...

in Italy who had become aware of the plight of his fellow countrymen who were emigrating to America to escape poverty. The cornerstone of the new church was laid in 1923 by the first pastor,

the Rev. The Reverend (abbreviated as The Revd, The Rev'd or The Rev) is an honorific style given to certain (primarily Western) Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and chur ...

Vincent M. Januzzi. St. Joseph

Parochial School A parochial school is a private school, private Primary school, primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathem ...

opened in 1926, administered by the

Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus The Congregation of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (ASCJ), previously known as the Missionary Zelatrices of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is an international congregation of religious women, founded in Viareggio, Italy, in 1894, by the B ...

, a congregation of teaching sisters from Italy. The Italian form of St. Joseph, ''San Giuseppe'', is inscribed on the masonry and is used to distinguish this church from its more famous Manhattan neighbor, St. Joseph's Church in Greenwich Village, as well as from the other parishes in Manhattan dedicated to

Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...

.
The World Almanac 1892 and Book of Facts
' (New York: Press Publishing, 1892), p.390. "Visible over the tenement scape of the Lower East Side are the twin domed towers of this Roman Catholic Sanctuary--San Giuseppe--at 5 Monroe Street, designed by Matthew W. Del Gaudio". The Church and School of St. Joseph continued to serve the people of the inner city and immigrants, with Masses celebrated in three different languages: English, Spanish and Chinese. St. Joseph Parish was designated a

national parish National parish is a type of Catholic parish distinguished by liturgical rites or nationality of the congregation; it is found within a diocese or particular Church, which includes other types of parishes in the same geographical area, each parish ...

for both the Italian and Chinese populations of the area. Declining congregations and changing demographics prompted further reorganizations in the early 21st century. In 2007 it merged with the nearby Parish of St. James, and its school merged with St. James Elementary School. The combined Parish of St. Joseph/St. James was merged again with the Church of the Transfiguration in 2015, sparking objections from some members of its active, predominantly Chinese-American congregation.

References

External links

Parish of Parish of Transfiguration and of St. James/St. Joseph website
Chinatown, Manhattan Christian organizations established in 1923 Closed churches in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York Italian-American culture in New York City Italian-American Roman Catholic national parishes in the United States National parishes Christian organizations disestablished in 2015 Roman Catholic churches completed in 1924 Roman Catholic churches in Manhattan Romanesque Revival church buildings in New York City 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States {{Manhattan-RC-church-stub