St. Joseph (Ottawa)

St. Joseph's Parish is a Roman Catholic parish church located in Ottawa, Canada. It is an Anglophone congregation located very near its partner parish, the Francophone Eglise Sacre-Coeur.

The parish was founded in 1856 by missionaries from the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The church was built on what was believed to be the resting places of many labourers killed in the construction of the Rideau Canal.

In 1892, the original church was demolished and a larger structure was built to accommodate the larger congregation. On December 27, 1930, a fire destroyed the building, and it required much sacrifice on behalf of the congregation to rebuild the church into its present form.

The parish generally has a large congregation and seems to have managed to avoid the fall in church attendance commonly observed over the past few decades. The church is considered to be somewhat more liberal than mainstream Catholicism, with women participating in the service to a greater extent than is common in most Roman Catholic churches. The parish also hosted Alex Munter, an University of Ottawa professor, gay-rights activist, and former mayoral candidate. [http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/mar/06031303.html]

The current pastor is Father Richard Kelly.

External links

[http://www.st-josephs.ca/ Parish homepage]