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On January 11, 1918, Bishop Thomas Grace purchased property on Grove Street in Elk Grove for a new Catholic Church. The church, dedicated to St. Joseph, was completed the same year and blessed by Bishop Thomas Grace. Priests of other parishes donated the altar, original organ, and a stained glass window of St. Joseph. The window was restored in 1985 and is now placed in the new church.
After forty-two years as a mission of Galt, St. Joseph became a Parish in 1962.
In December of 1972, Fr. John McDonnell announced the sale of the old church and plans to build a new church on Elk Grove-Florin Road across from Elk Grove Park. Bishop Bell dedicated the new church in 1973. A mission was established in Rancho Murieta in 1987, and in 1999 a church was constructed for three hundred active families.
Elk Grove experienced rapid growth in the early 1990s. On July 1, 1993, St. Joseph Parish was re-organized when Good Shepherd Parish was established with Fr. Thomas Bland as pastor.
Because of the great influx of new people, a new social hall was built and dedicated in January of 1997. While the church was enlarged and newly decorated from May to November 1997, mass was said in the new hall . The complex today includes the church, social hall, eight classrooms, and rectory.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School opened in August of 1999 and is shared with Good Shepherd Parish. With a large influx in the Spanish speaking community in 2000, Mass in Spanish was added.
As of October 2005, St. Joseph became a parish of 3,400 families. The religious education program teaches over nine hundred children each year. A group of Eucharistic Ministers deliver Communion to the homebound once a week. In addition, members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society prepare food baskets for about one hundred and twenty families at Thanksgiving and Christmas time. The parish also has an active Knights of Columbus Council that supports the parish and the school.
To see more see... "A History of St. Joseph Parish as told by "Voices from the Past"
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