Josephites (Maryland)

Society of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart

Societas Sodalium Sancti Joseph a Sacra Corde
Abbreviation	SSJ
Nickname	Josephites
Formation	May 30, 1893; 131 years ago (1893-05-30)
Founders	John R. Slattery Charles Uncles John A. Deruyter Dominic Manley Lambert Welbers
Founded at	Baltimore, United States
Type	Society of apostolic life of pontifical right for men
Headquarters	1130 N. Calvert Street, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Members	68 members (58 priests) as of 2020
Superior General	John Huston Ricard, SSJ
Ministry	Sacramental, Educational and Pastoral
Parent organization	Catholic Church
Website	josephites.org
[1]

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The Society of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart (Latin: Societas Sodalium Sancti Joseph a Sacra Corde), also known as the Josephites, is a society of apostolic life of pontifical right for men headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. Members work specifically among African Americans and take the postnominals SSJ.

The Josephites were formed in 1893 by a group of Mill Hill priests working with newly-freed Black people emancipated during the American Civil War.^[2] The founders included Fr John R. Slattery, who led the group and would become the first Josephite superior general, and one of the nation's first black priests, Fr Charles Uncles. With permission from the Mill Hill leaders in England and the Archbishop of Baltimore, Cardinal James Gibbons, the group established the Josephites as an independent mission society based in America and dedicated totally to the African-American cause.^[3]

The Josephites have served in Black Catholic parishes, schools, and other ministries around the country. They also played a major role in the Black Catholic Movement of the late 20th century, in which Black Catholicism became a more prominent part of the larger Black church, liturgically and otherwise.^[4] The Josephites were instrumental in the restoration of the permanent diaconate in the United States following the Second Vatican Council, and the Josephite bishop John Ricard helped found the National Black Catholic Congress in 1987.^[5]

In 2011, the society elected its first African-American superior general, Fr William "Bill" Norvel, who established a vocations hub for the society in Nigeria.^[4] The next two superiors have also been African Americans, the latest being Ricard. As of September 2021, the rest of the society's leadership and its new seminarians and priests are almost all Nigerians.