St. Joseph Church is a vibrant parish of Roman Catholics in Wauwatosa, Brookfield, Elm Grove and western Milwaukee. We are a family devoted to experiencing Jesus through prayer, formation and service.

Our life is centered around the Mass and supported by Bible study groups, prayer groups, and a wide variety of ministries, devotions and activities serving families, single people, children, young adults and senior citizens.

We strive to be a place were people encounter Christ, are transformed by Christ and accept Christ's commission to spread the Gospel.

Evangelical, Apostolic, Catholic Christians

As baptized Christians, we are evangelical and share Christ with others. As Roman Catholics, we are apostolic in carrying on and sharing the Gospel message entrusted to the Apostles and his Church by Jesus Christ. We are part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and carry on the legacy of one of the oldest parishes in the archdiocese.

We are blessed with strong participation, excellent preaching and outstanding singing in our Masses. Our pastoral administator is Fr. Justin Lopina – the 19th pastor in the history of our congregation. He is supported in liturgies by Deacon Jose Gonzales and Deacon Kurt Peot.

Approximately 900 households are registered with the parish, and more than 200 students attend our day school in grades K3 through 8. Hundreds more children, young people and adults learn more about their Catholic faith through our Catholic Formation initiatives.

Our congregation has been in Wauwatosa since the 1960s, but was created in 1855, when a new parish was created to serve Milwaukee's rapidly growing German Catholic population of that era – in what then was the "west side" of the city. Our parish was the fourth in the archdiocese – after the cathedral, Old St. Mary's, and Holy Trinity (now Our Lady of Guadalupe/St. Patrick.)

We moved from that location at 11th and Cherry in Milwaukee when that land was acquired by Milwaukee County for construction of Interstate 43. (As you drive north on I-43 downtown, when you see the Leinenkugel's Brewery on the right, you are passing over the site of the original St. Joseph.) Demolition of the old church began in March 1964. The bells in our bell tower are from the Cherry Street church, as are several other items, including the ornate baptistry seen in the current church narthex. The original church had four bells, but the smallest one was stolen when the Cherry Street church was being razed. (See Ken Pabst's video of the original church and its demolition, accessible at YouTube.)

Alioto’s Restaurant on Mayfair Road was the location of the first Masses for St. Joseph Congregation in Wauwatosa after the original church was razed. Beginning in November 1962, the congregation of 475 families attended Masses in the Banquet Room of the restaurant – affectionately known as "St. Alioto's." Once the new school building was completed in 1964, Masses were celebrated in what is now known at the Parish Hall, then moved to the current church building when its construction was completed in 1970.

Relics of Martyrs

The altar in our church contain relics of two martyrs. The Second Council of Nicea in the year 787 decreed that every altar should contain a relic, making it clear that such was already the norm; it remains so to the present day in Catholic and Orthodox churches. Ours are those of St. Theophila (from Nicomedia, in present-day Turkey) and St. Engratia (from present-day Spain).

St. Theophila was among the 20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia. They were martyred by being burned to death in the city's cathedral, for refusing to renounce Christ and for refusing to worship false gods.

According to tradition, St. Engratia was martyred with 18 companions in the year 303, under the Diocletiaic Persecution of Christians in Spain. But it also is possible that her martyrdom was during the persecution of Christians by Valerian, between 254 and 260. 

In the old St. Joseph's (which was at 11th and Cherry streets), the altar relics were those of St. Peregrine of Auxerre (martyr) and St. Odilia (virgin and martyr). Both saints likely met their deaths during the persecution of Diocletian (ca. 303).

The relics from the old St. Joseph church are displayed in the Prayer Room (the former confession room), along with relics of St. Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary; St. Therese of Lisieux (also known as St. Theresa of the Child Jesus); and St. Marguerite d'Youville, founder of the Sisters of Charity in Montreal – the so-called "Gray Nuns."