St. Joseph Catholic Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about St. Joseph Catholic Church in Ector County. Now settle in, because this story starts a long, long time before Odessa was even a name on a map.

We're talkin' the early 1500s. That's when explorers Cabeza de Vaca and Francisco Coronado arrived in west Texas, and with them came the Catholic presence that would eventually put down roots so deep they'd last centuries. Catholic missions followed those explorers, and then came westward expansion, and settlements, and the slow, patient work of building permanent church homes for the communities that were takin' shape out in that big open country.

Now, the first record of a Catholic priest actually ministering in Odessa comes from 1904, when Monsignor Nolan preached at the old courthouse. Think about that image for a second. A courthouse, not a sanctuary.

That's where the story of the faith in Odessa begins. After that, priests would occasionally visit individual homes, but there were no regularly scheduled services in Odessa, not until November of 1937. St.

Mary's Church was established the very next year, in 1938, and it didn't take long before something else became plain as a west Texas horizon: the Hispanic community of Odessa needed a Catholic church of its own. So in 1948, St. Joseph began, humbly, as a mission of St.

Mary's. Then in 1950, the church purchased an old army barracks to serve as the St. Joseph Mission.

An old army barracks. There's a certain poetry in that, a building built for one kind of purpose bein' given over entirely to another. In 1955, Father John Lucassen became the first full-time priest, and the mission kept growin' all through the 1950s.

By 1965, St. Joseph had grown enough that it was raised from a mission to a full parish. That's not a small thing.

That's a community provin' itself, year after year, until the Church took notice. And St. Joseph didn't stop there.

It went on to establish its own missions, St. Martin de Porras and St. Anthony among them.

St. Anthony grew so quickly it became a recognized parish in its own right. Today, St.

Joseph Catholic Church serves more than fourteen hundred registered households and stands as a significant part of the Diocese of San Angelo. From a courthouse sermon in 1904 to an army barracks to a thrivin' parish, this is a story about a community that kept showin' up, kept buildin', and never stopped needin' a place to call its own.

What the marker says

St. Joseph Catholic Church began in 1948 as a mission of St. Mary's Church to provide for the needs of the Hispanic community of Odessa. The Catholic presence in west Texas can be traced back as far as the early 1500s with the arrival of explorers Cabeza de Vaca and Francisco Coronado, followed by Catholic missions. With westward expansion, settlements created the need for permanent church homes for the community. The first record of a Catholic priest ministering in Odessa was in 1904 when Monsignor Nolan preached at the old courthouse. Priests occasionally visited individual homes but no regularly scheduled services were held in Odessa until November 1937. St. Mary's Church was established in 1938 and soon the need was evident for a Catholic church for the Hispanic community. In 1950, the church purchased an old army barracks to serve as the St. Joseph Mission. In 1955, father John Lucassen was the first full-time priest. The mission grew throughout the 1950s and, in 1965, the church was raised from a mission to a parish. The church continued to grow and serve the community of Odessa with spiritual guidance and outreach. St. Joseph established its own missions, including St. Martin de Porras and St. Anthony. St. Anthony quickly grew to be a recognized parish. From its humble beginnings as a mission to a thriving parish, serving more than 1,400 registered households, St. Joseph Catholic Church is a significant part of the Diocese of San Angelo, continuing to serve the spiritual needs of the catholic community of Odessa. (2017)