At Saint Joseph Parish, our Haiti Twinning Ministry is led by committed parishioners who desire to support an international Holy Cross community in need.

In 2016, our parish began the work of initiating a twinning relationship with Mary Immaculate Parish in Platon, Haiti, which is part of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Province and is shepherded by Rev. Charles Mehu, C.S.C.

Pope Francis has called Catholics to create a “culture of encounter." We are grateful to be able to care, share, and pray with our fellow Congregation of Holy Cross parish.

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Hope Ministries has been serving underprivileged individuals and families in Michiana since 1954. Following the Grace Model, the staff and volunteers at Hope Ministries provide residents with housing, meals, child-care, parenting classes, adult education, spiritual development, substance abuse recovery, life skills, employment readiness programs, among other vital programs and resources to help them gain stability in their lives.

The original Michigan Street building now primarily provides space for chapel services and a community kitchen, where nearly 300 meals are served every day. The Family Life Center provides housing for 18 families (including single mothers, married couples and single fathers), 16 single women and 40 single men.

Saint Joseph parishioners have been helping serve the needs of South Bend’s Hope Ministries for over 30 years by preparing and serving a meal on the first Friday of each month. As a member of this ministry, you may assist with meal prep on Thursday evening at St. Joe and/or serve on Friday evening at Hope. It is a wonderful outreach where we answer Christ's call to "feed the hungry."

We are also always in need of regular, monthly donations to sustain Saint Joseph’s monthly work at Hope. Contributions in support of this ministry may be made online at stjoeparish.weshareonline.org/hope.

Our Lady of the Road is the ministry outreach of the Saint Peter Claver Catholic Worker community in South Bend. While the Catholic Worker houses are located on South Saint Joseph Street, the drop-in center, known as Our Lady of the Road, is located at 744 South Main Street, and is open weekend mornings to offer breakfast, laundry, showers, and, most importantly, hospitality to our community.

Parishioners of Saint Joseph join guests and staff at Our Lady of the Road to prepare and serve breakfast on the fourth Saturday of every month. We gather at the drop-in center at 7:30am to prepare food. We help serve breakfast at 9:30am and then clean up, which lasts until 11:30am. Volunteers are welcome to help for the whole time or just a portion of the morning. We also welcome food donations.

To get involved, visit this sign up link. You can sign up for a volunteer shift, commit to bring food, or follow this link to make a financial contribution towards our efforts.

Our St. André Ministry is our ministry to the sick and homebound. While our infirmed and homebound parishioners cannot be one with us around the table of the Lord at our Sunday Mass, we send out extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist to them that they might share in the healing power of the Bread of Life.

Ministers to the sick and homebound are given training to perform their ministry and are then assigned to a particular member of our parish for an unspecified duration. Before Mass, ministers add their pyx to the tray in the sacristy and at the end of the Mass, the priest will distribute these sacred vessels and bless the ministers on their way.

Parish priests visit homebound parishioners on the First Friday of each month with Eucharist and sacraments of Reconciliation and Anointing, if desired.

If you or someone you know would like to be added to our list of homebound parishioners, please call our parish office at 574-234-3134.

The Saint Joseph Parish Conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society is a unit of the St. Joseph County District Council, which in turn is a component of a national and world-wide organization. Under the Patronage of St. Vincent de Paul, the Society was founded in Paris over 170 years ago by Blessed Frederick Ozanam. The Conference in Saint Joseph Parish has operated continuously since 1916. The principal mission of the Society is attending to the needs of the poor and, by so doing, increasing the Christian witness of the Society's members.

At Saint Joseph, we keep "blue bags" in the church for parishioners to take home and return with non-perishable food donations. When families in need call us, we respond by visiting their homes, providing food and other resources, and by praying with them. The conference meets monthly in the Ackles Parish Center to pray together and report on calls and other conference business.

How You Can Help

We welcome new volunteers! Call 574-234-3134.

We also welcome your help through your donations! The blue Saint Vincent de Paul bags available in the church are for you to take home and return with food donations.  Place them on the altar at the offertory or after Mass, or drop them off at the parish center during business hours.

You are also welcome to make donations by dropping cash or a check in the poor box located on the wall in the back of the church.

Saint Joseph Parish has joined a nationwide effort – Walking with Moms in Need – to increase outreach and support for pregnant and parenting mothers.

Walking with Moms in Need is a process through which Catholic parishes and communities "walk in the shoes" of local pregnant and parenting women in need. Everyone should know how to help moms in difficult circumstances. While not trying to turn our parish into a pregnancy center, we can support local pregnancy centers and find and share other resources with pregnant and parenting women. And where there are few local resources, we can create our own, based on the gifts of our parish community!

Members of our parish community are now engaging in outreach to support mothers in our area.

Financial Support

Support moms in need by giving financially to support causes such as new baby gifts, baby wipes & diapers, miscarriage kits, and baby shower decorations & refreshments. Give now! Thank you for your support!

If you have any questions or would like to be more involved in this parish ministry, or if you would like to make us aware of a mother in need of support, please email walkingwithmoms@stjoeparish.com or contact the parish office at 574-234-3134. We also invite you to fill out this short interest form to let us know how you'd like to get involved.

Resources for Moms

• HerMichiana
• Diocese of FW-SB Walking With Moms Resources