History

 

For nearly 60 years, St. Joseph Church has provided a Catholic presence in the Broadmoor section of east Shreveport. The parish was established on Saturday, Feb. 26, 1949, with the first Mass celebrated in the neighborhood “movie house” just 15 days later – on Sunday, March 13 – by Rev. Joseph B. Gremillion, the first Pastor.

The irony of some movie titles displayed on the Broadmoor Theater’s marquee was not lost on the parish’s founding members as they passed the ticket booth on their way to Sunday Masses.

Mass continued to be conducted with a “silver screen” as a backdrop for the next 13 months as the parish grew to nearly 250 families, with Fr. Gremillion urging those not yet contacted to register with an usher after Mass.

Ground-breaking for the building that would be the parish’s church was held Wednesday, July 13, 1949, near the intersection of Patton and Anniston Streets, with Most Rev. Charles P. Greco, Bishop of Alexandria, officiating. The land on which St. Joseph would be built was purchased in 1943 by St. John Berchmans Parish, and was purchased by the Catholic Diocese of Alexandria after 1945. Originally envisioned as St. Joseph’s future gymnasium and activity building, the “temporary” church hosted its first Mass at 7 a.m. on Palm Sunday, April 2, 1950.

The new combination church and social hall was formally dedicated and blessed two weeks later on Sunday, April 16, 1950. At the 11 a.m. ceremony, Bishop Greco blessed a dedicatory cornerstone which bears the inscription, “To The Glory of God, The Love of Christ, and The Eternal Life of Souls-1950.” A Solemn High Mass followed.

In July 2008, following a 17-month $5-million renovation project, that same building has become the permanent worship space for more than 1,500 families who call St. Joseph their spiritual home, and the anchor for the Flagship parish of the Catholic Diocese of Shreveport.

The author of “Journal of a Southern Pastor” (1957), Fr. Gremillion laid a solid
foundation for the

progressive, community-service ministries that would become the ongoing, living legacy of St. Joseph. Since its founding, 35 priests have served St. Joseph as eight pastors, 31 associates and six priests-in-residence.

The first educational building was completed in time for St. Joseph School to open in September 1951 with 102 students, four teachers, a kindergarten and three grades. Today there are 430 students in K-3 through eighth grade. The physical plant of St. Joseph Parish now comprises 15 permanent structures.

In 1984, when St. Joseph was bursting at the seams with 1,750 families, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish was formed from within St. Joseph’s original borders – which, as the tongue-in-cheek saying went in the early days of St. Joseph, “extended south to Mexico” – and was built on land owned by St. Joseph Parish. St. Joseph also donated the intricately carved statues of Mary and Jesus, and the matching Crucifix crafted by one of the finest studios in Paris, France, that today adorn the St. Elizabeth Sanctuary.

This community of believers, known far and wide simply as “St. Joseph,” believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Who suffered, died and rose from th e dead in atonement for the sins of all mankind. This conviction is seen in the many ministries offered here.