When Bishop Joseph Williams was serving as pastor of Saint Stephen-Holy Rosary Parish in Minneapolis, Minn., he took his ministry to the streets.
With a vision of fostering a missionary community within his parish, Bishop Williams mentored a group of parishioners, preparing them to evangelize in the local community.
“During the summer, he gathered them and sent them out in groups to the neighborhood,” said Monica Mesa, who Bishop Williams brought on as director of liturgy for the parish. “We would knock on doors, go to grocery stores and parks; we would introduce ourselves and start conversations with people – letting them know that Saint Stephen’s was a church in the neighborhood, inviting them to attend Mass and bring their children for faith formation classes.”
Following each day, the volunteers would gather at the church to share their experience and give thanks.
“We learned the needs of the community and their struggles,” Mesa said. “Many people would not only share what was going on in their lives, but also wanted to be invited to the church. Many were happily surprised that Catholics were going out to talk to people.”
The street ministry efforts that Bishop Williams organized are just one facet of how he has dedicated time throughout his priesthood to supporting the Latino community. His commitment was also recognized with his appointment as the vicar for Latino Ministry for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis in 2018.
“Bishop Williams has a missionary soul. The impact he has had at Saint Stephen’s comes from a deep relationship with our Lord,” said Mesa, adding that the pastor emphasized imitating Jesus and making prayer a priority. “That equipped him to understand the depths of the needs of an immigrant community, with struggles but with a faith ready to bloom in a new country.”
Mesa first met Bishop Williams in 2015 when she was working for an apostolate that was part of the parish. A few months later, he invited her to serve as the director of liturgy. As she continues in this role today, she said the parish continues some of the same street ministry outings during Holy Week – and that the evangelization has enriched everyone involved.
“When cultivating missionary discipleship, the evangelized becomes the evangelists. The ones found in parks by missionaries, after coming to Mass and receiving formation, saw their lives transformed, and [then they] wanted to go out and share their experience with others,” she said. “I live in the neighborhood, and I often see parishioners passing by, in the park playing soccer with their kids, or going grocery shopping. There are families that live in the same apartment building and now are friends because they go to Saint Stephen-Holy Rosary. It helps to create a sense of identity to know that we share the same faith.”
Ginger Graham, business administrator for the parish, credits Bishop Williams with developing a rich and vibrant faith community during his time there.
“Bishop Williams built up a very strong and committed parish community during his 14 years as pastor of Saint Stephen-Holy Rosary through neighborhood evangelization and ongoing formation,” she said. “The lay leadership that he developed here is still in place, actively promoting and strengthening the faith for hundreds of children and adults each year.”
Father James Bernard, who served as pastor in-solidum alongside Bishop Williams in his most recent assignment at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Saint Paul, has also seen firsthand how the Bishop has reached the Latino community.
“Bishop Williams not only has high language skills and is able to communicate with Latinos, but he also has a heart for Latinos,” he said. “As a seminarian, he would go to Our Lady of Guadalupe, not knowing that he would serve Latinos or serve as a pastor at that very parish.”
Father Bernard said that the Bishop has worked to bring Latino communities together, and to share with them his gift for evangelizing.
“He has taken the time to help priests who serve Latinos to empower their people,” he said, “and even has done so personally.”
His personal outreach, Mesa said, is something that continues to stick with faithful he encountered.
“He took the time to meet families, one by one, to be welcomed in their homes. They felt that he loved them with the heart of Jesus,” she said. “I still hear from longtime parishioners: ‘I am amazed that Padre Jose remembered every single name of my family members after all these years!’ or ‘Padre Jose showed me how to give my life to Jesus because even though I was Catholic, I wasn’t really practicing my faith’, or ‘Padre Jose showed my wife and I how to forgive and ask for forgiveness in our marriage.’”
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