Old Saint Joseph’s Church

I really enjoyed the mass at this church. It was traditional, but the priest is young and gave a great homily. The church is understated and simple, cozy but not suffocating. There was a good sense of community because the priest invited us to all greet each other before the mass. I noticed a larger proportion of younger people (20s-​30s) that I am not accustomed to seeing at other parishes. That was encouraging to me!
Hint: It is on Willing’s Alley and the entrance is a bit tricky to find! Look for the sign and the arrow which says «Church». Sounds more obvious than you’d think ;)

I don’t know how I feel about reviewing churches on Unilocal,but here goes: my husband is Catholic and I wanted to explore the faith. I wanted to go somewhere that’s more welcoming of lgbtqia communities and found them listed on
. The space is airy and bright and very welcoming, priest had a good sense of humor, beautiful hymns at the 11:30 Sunday masses. As churches go, relatively diverse in age and visible race. My husband went with me a second time and said it’s the best mass he’s been to. Plus, there’s lots of history here. They mean it when they say «all are welcome.»

My first service was this past Mother’s Day. I am happy that I found Old St Joseph’s and even happier to return. Upon entering the church, I promptly noticed the stark difference between Old St Joseph’s and the impersonal and often over-​the-​top Catholic parishes I’ve experienced. I immediately felt comforted by the simplistic, yet beautiful, architecture of the church. I love the community feel and the Father’s acknowledgment of guests/​visitors.
Many Catholic Churches have struggled to remain relevant and gain support from younger parishioners, but I felt the Father delivered a modern-​day applicable sermon while remaining true to Catholic virtues. Highly impressed with my first service, stay tuned as I continue attending!

I attended services at this location for the Stations of the Cross. It was a wonderful place located in historic old city. The service was well done, with accommodations to all of the faithful. I truly appreciated the way in which they conducted the service and their outreach to parishioners.

Beautiful historical church with rabid liberal priest, Father Ruff, who decided to entertain my wife and I with a diatribe on wonders of the obama administration despite the fact the obama administration has been attacking the foundations of freedom of religion and worship at an intensity worse than any administration in modern American history. No sermons on that, only those praising government goodies and how we should all support spending on the poor, instead helping them rise out of poverty and become independent.
Father Ruff decided go on praising the efforts of what he calls «undocumented workers» or how the rest of America refers to them: illegal criminal aliens. No sermons on how much money these criminals are costing taxpayers BILLIONS of dollars as they become another string on the welfare chain. Welfare is «humane» but no talk on the inhumanity on creating the crisis on the border that obama (and bush) have created in recent years.
Father Ruff also made comments bashing the «capitalist free market system» but fails to mention how only the capitalist system has raised more people from poverty and increased the quality of life for more people than any other in human history.
As a Catholic, I am deeply saddened at what has happened to the Church, and how priests like this expect us to contribute financially to support these radical, caustic, and illogical ramblings of a boob like Father Ruff. We will not.
They are silent on issues that matter, except of course involving criminals that enter this country illegally, then they will take the pulpit as we find the exit.

This is an update, a minor one. The wonderfully convenient parking lot has been sold and is now off-​limits to Old St. Joseph’s parishioners. You’re on your own with street parking.
We went to OSJ’s on Easter and the music was superb.

Walking through a historic neighborhood, I took a detour through the cemetary belonging to Old St. Joseph’s. It’s the oldest Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia and established in 1733.
The headstones no longer hold the inscriptions, but flags still wave by graves of vetrans who died over a century ago. It is truly touching to see the rich history of Philadephia still standing after all these years.

amercia oldest jesuit church i love it having a jesuit in my family its even more in the heart of society hill at 2 blocks from liberty bell

St. Joseph’s is one of the oldest Catholic churches in the country. (granted San Antonio and New Orleans have some even older churches but they were technically New Spain and New France, not American til later.) Since Catholics were not friendly with the Puritans, they first settled in Philadelphia where Quakers were in charge and they preached religious tolerance. The entrance to the church is not easy to find. This isn’t an accident ;it’s on purpose because at the time it was built Catholic churches were often torched by Protestants. The church is still active and has mass times available.