Restoring Our Church
Growing Our Parish
Reviving Our City
What's the Plan?
On October 8, 2020, a little over a week before the launch of Phase II of our Historic Renewal Capital Campaign, we received a $250,000 grant to be matched two-for-one from the National Fund for Sacred Places managed by the Partners for Sacred Places in collaboration with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This grant will be used primarily for the complete restoration of our severely weather worn limestone facade of our historic church including church infrastructure repairs. This restoration work and all related engineering work began during Phase I. In phase II, we envisage the replacement of the church’s fifth generation heating system . Additionally, this Phase is designed to prepare the church in the best possible light for the 150th anniversary in 2023. Major projects here include the church entrance way, stained glass windows and many other improvements.
About St. Joseph Shrine
A magnificent Victorian Gothic edifice completed in 1873 and noted as of national architectural significance, St. Joseph Shrine is a landmark center of Catholic faith, culture, and community in Detroit’s historic Eastern Market district. Since October 2016, the Canons of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest have served and led the local faithful by bringing daily Traditional Latin Masses, regular devotions, liturgical instruction, and an active parish life. As a result, the parish community at St. Joseph Shrine continues to grow enriching both young and old, individuals and families from all backgrounds and neighborhoods.
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In July 2013, the Archdiocese of Detroit merged St. Joseph with two nearby parishes. Then in October 2016, St. Joseph became its own parish under the spiritual and pastoral care of the Institute of Christ the King. In March 2020 the Parish was granted the designation of Archdiocesan Shrine in recognition of its vibrant spiritual growth and daily life. More details here.
About the Institute of Christ the King
Founded in 1990 within the Roman Catholic Church, the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest is a society of priests, sisters, and oblate brothers whose aim is to bring the truth in charity of Christ the King to every sphere of human life. Currently serving in eleven countries around the world and in thirteen dioceses across the United States, the Institute is devoted to the sanctification of souls through the celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite with Gregorian chant and through the spirituality of its holy patrons: St. Francis de Sales, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Benedict, as well as St. Therese of the Child Jesus.
At the invitation of Archbishop Allen Vigneron, the Institute arrived in 2016 to re-vivify the newly-unmerged parish, and to minister to the faithful of the Archdiocese of Detroit through a full sacramental life formed and nurtured by the Traditional Latin Mass. Sacred music, generous service of the poor, and cultural enlivenment have all flowered and continue to grow in the beautiful St. Joseph’s Church in Detroit’s historic Eastern Market, an active and rapidly re-developing urban hub.
