Ignacio Herrera
Brock Schwenk

Address:
1310 Main St.
Rochester, IN 46975

Phone: 574-946-4906

Weekend Mass Times:
          5:00 PM Saturday (EDT)
          9:30 AM Sunday (EDT)
          1:00 PM Sunday (EDT) - Spanish

Open Church Hours for Prayer, Meditation, and Reflection
 Monday - Friday 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Bishop John Noll dedicated brick Romanesque St. Joseph Church at 13th and Main streets on July 13, 1930. He appointed Father Charles Scholl Rochester's resident pastor in June 1941.

Rochester’s first St. Joseph Church was on lots 446-447 at West 8th Street. From 1857 to 1858 Logansport priests regularly visited Rochester. On October 19, 1868, Bishop Luers purchased the lots for the church built in 1869. After 1871, priests from Wabash, Plymouth, Kokomo and Valparaiso visited. St. Joseph's became Monterey's mission (1888-1941). In 1907, the parish had six households of 25 people. 

With Lake Manitou's summer tourist growth in 1930, Monterey's pastor, Father John Schall, bought the present lots. After its last use on July 6, 1930, the frame church was razed and the present church built. Monterey's pastor cared for it until Father Schall arrived to purchase a rectory. Father Harold Weller (1964-1978) built a new rectory with the parish hall. Father George Lanning (1957-1964) expanded the church and erected an outdoor shrine to Our Lady. In 1963, Father Lanning gave a historic lecture on "The Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church" as a Protestant church. Father Richard Puetz, 1978-1987, renovated the church interior in 1980 after adding the church's south side handicapped ramp. Bishop Raymond Gallagher rededicated the church on October 19, 1980.

Father Francis Kilcline (1987-1994) reorganized the parish council after the diocesan structural pattern. In 1991, St. Ann, Kewanna, was assigned to Rochester's pastor. Father John Zahn (1994-2000) instituted the parish PT-715 radio program. With Father Joseph Jacob as pastor since 2000, St. Joseph's 250 households of about 850 parishioners are confident that the intersession of St. Joseph will continue bringing them growth and God's blessing.