Our History

Our parish of St. Joseph was begun in the heart of what is now downtown Minneapolis in 1870 by German immigrants.  To worship in a familiar setting they asked St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota to provide a German speaking priest since they were a German founded abbey.  The parish over a number of years kept building bigger and bigger churches to accommodate the growing number of people who joined there to worship.  They added a school of grades Kindergarten through 8^th grade.  If you look on the wall by the office window you will see a charcoal drawing of what the church finally looked like in the 1950’s until the 1970’s. 

The Church of St. Joseph in downtown Minneapolis was a very active church and school for many years.  There were 4 bells that had been sent from Germany to unite the people from their home country to the new world and the new opportunities promised in Minnesota.  In 1972 a tornado swept through that part of town and toppled both bell towers into the street in front of the church narrowly missing cars parked on the street.  About the same time the state was looking to put into place a freeway that would take people from downtown to the western suburbs.  The land was taken by eminent domain.  The state then bought the entire block consisting of the church, school, convent, rectory and playground to make way for Highway 394.  We were about where 384 starts near the Twins ballpark. 
 

The Archdiocese wanted to move the parish from downtown to one of the outer suburbs.  Maple Grove was selected.  The Archdiocese was going to take the money from the sale of the property to the State of Minnesota and give it to a new parish.  There was some discussion as to what to name the new parish until someone pointed out to the leaders that it was against Canon Law to take the money or property of one parish and give it to another.  So the decision was to name it St. Joseph’s, just like it was downtown.  Except there are a couple of other parishes in the area named St. Joseph.  How to make this name different yet keep the name of St. Joseph?  The idea was to name it St. Joseph the Worker to distinguish this parish from surrounding parish with the name of St. Joseph. 

The start of the parish began in a house on the southern border of Maple Grove in late 1975.  Mass was held in the basement of that split level home. It wasn’t long before the parish outgrew that building and moved to Cedar Island School.  In 1977 the corner stone of the first church in this location was laid.   You can still see it out the far doors of the gathering space.  For the next 25 years that church was home to a growing number of families with many recent immigrants from all over the world.  When the City of Maple Grove began to grow so did the parish.  Fr. George Kinney was the priest in charge of building the church and seeing that it got started on a sound path.

In the early 1990’s Fr. John Parkos came to St. Joseph and guided the church during it’s major growth while the population in the city of Maple Grove boomed.  We went from a small group of committed families in 1975 of about 50 families to several hundred during the time of Fr. Kinney.  When Fr. Parkos came he saw the parish grow from several hundred to over a 1000 families.  Being a church in the suburbs there were lots of little kids baptized and participating in the religious education programs.  To accommodate the growth the staff grew in size also.  Fr. Parkos moved in 1999 as the parish was thinking of embarking on yet another boom in growth and the need for yet a bigger church building.

Fr. Mike Sullivan came to St. Joseph the Worker in 2000 on loan from the Diocese of Crookston in northwest Minnesota.  Construction on the new building was begun in 2002 and completed in mid-March of 2003 in the middle of Lent.  People were amazed at the difference in structures.  People had to find a new place to claim as their own.  On May 1, 2003, Archbishop Harry Flynn came on the feast of St. Joseph the Worker and dedicated the new structure.  At the end of the dedication Mass Archbishop Flynn acknowledged how well the people of the parish prayed and sang.  He said they were the best in the Archdiocese, although the seating arrangement might have had something to do with the ability of the priest to hear everyone in the worship space.  Since Fr. Sullivan came here the city of Maple Grove has added nearly 20,000 people to the population.  During this same time the size of the church has grown from 1500 families to 2400 now.  People from all over the Twin Cities and dozens of other cities have become members of St. Joseph the Worker.

In the early history of the parish attention was given to social justice action.  The parish has been a leader in the area promoting all sorts of justice issues including affordable housing, food for the hungry, better education for all children, food baskets for Thanksgiving and Christmas and care for the ecology.  They have been influential in changing the minds of the city council on some issues.  They have helped to see that there is more affordable housing for the laborers who work in the city.  The school board people who represent school districts in the area recognize many parishioners who attend their meetings.  We are known as a transformative power in the Maple Grove area.

In 2009 St. Joseph the Worker began a sister parish relationship with St. Catherine’s in Bouzy, Haiti.  Regularly we would send people to their village to come to understand their culture and faith.  We have stood by them after the earthquake of 2010 that destroyed so much of Port au Prince and damaged the church of St. Catherine’s.  In sending doctors there we have helped them find ways to provide clean, healthy water for their families.  We have provided books, paper, teachers salaries and food for the school, which has grown considerably since the aid began.  The school serves all of the children of the village.  During very difficult years we have sent food to help them recover from hurricanes which have destroyed crops, washed away animals and damaged many structures.  They have regularly come back to visit the Parish of St. Joseph the Worker.  We regularly exchange news via email and pictures.

Fr. Michael Sullivan